Andy Jackson Goddess of Fate
by volturiprincess086
Summary: FemPercy After the events in TLO Andy is turned into a goddess by the fates themselves.. She is the transported back in time 15 years, now that the fates are appeased she must stop the future from repeating its self. Join her and a few of her demigod friends as they read the Andy Jackson and the Olympians book series with the gods. No HOO..
1. Prologue

It was over, and I couldn't believe I survived. Luke had to sacrifice his life, it was a sad... but fitting end. My problem now was, what's next? What do you do after you complete your destiny? I could have been made a goddess today, my eighteenth birthday, the day of my finest victory. At least I hoped so- I don't want to lead another army for the fate of the world just to surpass myself. And as appealing as being a goddess is I couldn't because of him. Also my mother, Annabeth, Grover, I wouldn't be able to see them again. Also I had made a promise, and the demigod's deserved the changes I requested.

It had been two hours since the gods rewarded us. I was sitting in a garden that survived Kronos' trip to the throne room, staring at a small pond with rainbow fish that seemed to glow slightly. I was waiting for the final head count, and an update on injuries when they arrived.

Three old women, the scariest three old women I had ever seen. The fates in all their decrepit glory. I couldn't help but stare at them- something bad always happens; or is going to happen when they appear before you. These tiny old women scared the gods themselves. They stood before me looking down at where I was seated in the grass- I stood quickly coming out of my surprise at seeing them. I gave them a deep bow- waiting for them to speak.

"You have come to your destiny young half-blood. You have done well." The old woman on the left said.

"You have achieved what you were meant to in your mortal life." The one on the right said. The woman in the middle stepped forward.

"Your new destiny is upon you." I didn't like the way that sounded, I took two steps back.

"What destiny? What do you mean?" Riptide was in my pocket, but I knew better than to pull a sword on the fates.

"Andromeda Jackson, you are the thirteenth Olympian." My jaw dropped. I stared at her for a long moment gaping like a fish, trying to remember how to form sentences.

"I I I'm only a half-blood. I'm not an Olympian." I took several more steps back. All their faces broke into creepy smiles. I dare not look them in the eyes.

"You will be an Olympian in a moment." They all stepped forward at once. I held my hands up moving away.

"I don't want to be an Olympian, my life is in the mortal world." My voice sounded panicked even to my own ears.

"It is your fate." They all raised their arms at once and began chanting, in a language I've never heard. I tried to run but I was frozen in place. It was like Kronos stopping time. Raw power hit me, and all I remembered before falling into darkness was beautiful glowing energy flowing towards me. 


	2. Sleeping Beauty

The winter solstice meeting on Olympus was just wrapping up when a blinding sea-green light appeared in the middle of the throne room silencing all arguments. When it faded a teenage girl was in it's place sleeping on the floor in bloody ripped clothes covered in monster dust. All the god's stared at her, wondering who she could be. A scroll of parchment was beside her. Hermes and Apollo both stood and walked over, Hermes to collect the scroll, and Apollo to check her over for injuries. He put one hand on her head, and closed his eyes. A second later Apollo's eyes snapped open.

"She's in transition." He sounded amazed.

"Transition from what into what?" Athena asked studying the girl.

"A demigod into a goddess." There was a moment where you could've heard a pin drop. Then all Hades broke lose.

"How?"

"Who could've-"

"Well she's not a maiden-"

"I wonder if she likes to fight-"

"Oh she's beautiful, she must be one of my children, I wonder if she's in love?!"

"I should write her a poem."

"SILENCE!" Zeus's voice boomed halting all discussion. Apollo snapped his fingers and a daybed appeared under her, lifting her off the cold hard floor. Her clothes changed into a beautiful golden Greek styled dress. All the blood and grime disappeared from her skin.

"Hermes, read the scroll." Zeus demanded. Hermes cleared his throat, and broke the wax seal.

"Olympian council- meet your thirteenth member. Andromeda Goddess of Fate, Tides, Loyalty, and Rain. Read her story, and prevent her present from becoming your future. Be prepared, more demigod's will join you soon. Her seat on the council is not to be questioned. Fate deems it so, and so it shall be. ~ The Fates." Everyone had the same shocked face, when a book fell from the sky- hitting the floor with a loud BOOM! Making several gods and goddess' jump. Athena stood and retrieved the book.

"Andy Jackson and the Olympians- the Lightning Thief." Poseidon winced hearing her name. Luckily no one noticed.

"We cannot defy the Fates. Read Athena." Zeus ordered not looking happy at all. Athena cleared her throat and opened the book.

"Chapter one, 'I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER.'"

"I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways."

Everyone with demigod children winced.

"If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you. Don't say I didn't warn you.

My name is Andy Jackson. I'm thirteen years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that."

"Oh I hope she's one of mine." Ares sat forward rubbing his hands together.

"I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our seventh-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mentalcase kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff."

"Sounds like torture." Poseidon spoke for the first time since the girl arrived. Causing several snickers, and a dirty look from Athena.

"I know—it sounds like torture." A few eyebrows rose in his direction.

"Most Yancy field trips were, Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hope. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee."

"Sounds like Chiron."

"You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep." Athena frowned, well the child wasn't her's.

"I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble. Boy, was I wrong, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway." Several gods laughed.

"And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the point. But this trip, I was determined to be good. All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and ketchup  
sandwich."

"EW!" Aphrodite squeaked.

"Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was  
enchilada day in the cafeteria."

"Satyr."

"Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything  
happens."

Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. Mr. Brunner led the museum rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years."

"Longer than that sweetheart." Apollo laughed not seeing the look Poseidon gave him, Athena didn't miss it tho.

"He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn." Everyone looked at Hades.

"She's not mine." He huffed back.

"She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

"Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?" It came out louder than I meant it to."

"Always does." Hermes snickered.

"The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. "Miss Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this  
picture represents?" I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.

"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."

"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"

"King God?!" Zeus was red in the face.

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me."

"Yes, that was rather unsightly." Demeter nodded.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the  
gods won." Some snickers from the group.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life.  
Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Miss Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question,  
does this matter in real life?"

"Busted!" Hermes and Apollo sang happily.

"Busted," Grover muttered.' They laughed.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying  
anything wrong. He had radar ears. I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Miss Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and  
scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Miss Jackson." I knew that was coming.

I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a  
thousand years old and had seen everything.

"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.

"About the Titans?"

"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."

"Oh."

"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Andy Jackson."

I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped."

"Sounds fun." Hermes and Apollo said at the same time, then laughed while Artemis rolled her eyes.

"But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral."

"He probably was." Ares mumbled.

"He told me to go outside and eat my class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in."

They all looked at Poseidon, and Zeus. But they just shrugged.

"Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

"No," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."

Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"

I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me."

"Aww. Such a good daughter." The goddess' cooed.

"Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap."

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody  
had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos." Aphrodite looked sickened.

"I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get  
control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears."

"A wave?" They all looked to Poseidon.

"I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the  
fountain, screaming, "Andy pushed me!"

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. Some of the kids were whispering:

"Did you see—"

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

"POSEIDON!" Zeus roared.

"Very well brother, she is mine." Poseidon sighed, Hades and Zeus both look enraged.

"You broke your oath!" Zeus pointed his bolt at the sleeping girl. The throne room shook, and before anyone could blink Poseidon had his trident at Zeus' throat. They were so distracted they didn't notice the arrival of several other demigods.

"Be careful little brother," he spat. "If you touch her, I will show you the meaning of war."

"Peace father, uncle. We have visitors." All the demigods were standing beside Andy's sleeping form. Staring at the two gods. "Introduce yourselves."

A heavy set girl stepped forward and bowed. "Clarisse La Rue daughter of Ares."

"Annabeth Chase daughter of Athena." Athens stared at her.

"But you are only three!"

"We come from fifteen years in the future."

"Nico di Angelo son of Hades." Zeus looked ready to kill.

"Thalia Grace daughter of Zeus, lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis."

"You were saying brother?" Poseidon glared at Zeus.

"What happened to Zoe?" Artemis asked looking saddened.

"Forgive me milady, we were told not to answer questions. The Fates said we must let the story unfold in it's own time." Artemis nodded and snapped her fingers producing chairs for all the demigods.

"Read Athena." A very disgruntled Zeus demanded.

"I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.

"Now, honey—"

"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."

"Never guess your punishment!" Apollo shook his head.

"That wasn't the right thing to say.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."

I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.

"But—"

"You—will—stay—here." Grover looked at me desperately.

"It's okay," I told him. "Thanks for trying." I smiled at him.

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked.I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare." The demigods shivered never wanting to be the one getting that look from Andy.

"Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

How'd she get there so fast?

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.

I wasn't so sure.

I went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.

Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She  
was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.

I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with  
it?"

The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building." Poseidon glared at Zeus.

"We are not fools, Andy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we  
found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book."

"Sounds like a child of yours. Dumb as kelp." Athens sneered. The demigods shot her murderous looks, including her own daughter which shocked her.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't..."

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers  
stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She  
was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was  
about to slice me to ribbons."

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY DAUGHTER!" His eyes flashed dangerously. Hades actually sank a little in his seat.

"How should I know, it hasn't happened yet."

"Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Andy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day. Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, "Die, honey!"And she flew straight at me.

Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!

"She compares everything to water." Annabeth shook her head.

"Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me. I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something."

"Only Andy." Nico said the other demigods nodded their agreement.

"Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

I said, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was. He said, "Who?"

But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.  
"Not funny," I told him. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted.

"Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Miss Jackson."

I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Andy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"

"Thats the end of the chapter." Andy started to move, and let out a low moan. Then she sat bolt upright.

"What-? The Fates! Those conniving old bitches!"

"Andromeda!"

"Sorry dad. But I told them I didn't want to be an Olympian! I didn't want to be a goddess!" The other demigod's mouths dropped open.

"What?!" Annabeth shrieked.

"You are still in transition. You must announce yourself proclaim yourself a goddess, names have power." Poseidon told her looking directly into her eyes, his eyes.

"What if I don't?"

"Then you will never come into your full power, and can not claim your seat on the council."


	3. Killer Socks

I pulled Riptide out and cut my palm, instead of blood golden ichor poured out of the cut. The demigods gasped, I wanted t cry. I summoned water to me covering my hand and healing the gash. I couldn't believe this, I was no longer mortal. I looked around- first at my friends, they were all cleaned up from the battle we fought hours ago. The throne room looked as if the fight never happened. When I looked at the gods my heart twinged when I saw Apollo. Aphrodite sucked in a breath, and her hand flew up to her chest. She must've felt my heart ache.

"We are fifteen years in the past, the Fates told us not to answer questions, we're reading your myth." Annabeth calmly informed me. How she was so clam after hearing I was in transition into becoming a goddess is beyond me.

"My myth? You mean my life story? Like my thoughts, dreams, everything?"

"Yes." My father answered.

"But that personal!" I paled at the thought of what was to come.

"I am sorry but the Fates say we must so we must. Not even the gods can defy them.." My father truly looked like he felt bad for me.

"Fine." I said through gritted teeth.

"Who would like to read next?" Athena held out the book.

"Oh! I will!" Annabeth walked over to her mother and bowed before taking the book out of her hand.

(General POV)

"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death,"

Everyone looked confused except for Annabeth. Her eyes popped wide open. Then went to the floor with sorrow embedded in their grey depths, causing many questioning glances.

"I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.

This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas."

"That's because they thought she had been." Nico said feeling sorry for Andy.

'Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.

Annabeth laughed. "You are a little psycho." I glared at her.

"It got to the point where I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

Almost.

"I bet you five drachmas that it's the satyr's fault." Apollo said to Hermes. "You're on."

"But Grover couldn't fool me."

"Thank you." He said collecting his five drachmas from Hermes.

"When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

"No really?" Dionysus said in a bored tone.

"I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year."

"What are you two fighting about now?" Hephaestus asked Zeus and Poseidon, who both had no idea.

"I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.

I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good."

Annabeth and Athena started laughing while everyone just stared at them blankly. "It means old drunkard." Annabeth explained.

"The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

"Wimp." Ares snorted then stopped at the glare Andy was giving him.

"I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties."

"Stupid Gabe. He makes a better statue." Andy muttered, but no one heard her.

"And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me. I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.

"Aww, she wants to impress Chiron." Hermes said smirking.

"I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,"

"It should be easy for you now, you met both." Annabeth said not noticing Poseidon pale, Andy just chuckled.

"Or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Andy Jackson.

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said, "... worried about Andy, sir."

I froze.

I'm not usually an eavesdropper,"

"Sure." Annabeth said while rolling her eyes.

"but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult."

"Okay, that is a valid point."

"I inched closer.

"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"

"We would only make matters worse by rushing her," Mr. Brunner said. "We need her to mature more."

"But she may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—"

"Will have to be resolved without her, Grover. Let her enjoy her ignorance while she still can."

"Sir, she saw her... ."

"Her imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince her of that."

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Andy alive until next fall—"

The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

"No!" Hermes shouted. "Never give away your position!"

"Mr. Brunner went silent.

My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.

"Good, good. Never leave evidence behin-"

"HERMES SHUT UP!"

"A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow."

"Chiron shouldn't have done that, what if it was a mortal?" Artemis asked and was answered with silence.

"I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"What happened at the winter solstice?" Apollo asked receiving silence as an answer.

"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."

"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me."

"Wait, does he have to go through exams every time he's hiding in a school?" Nico asked, Annabeth nodded. "Poor satyr."

"The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorms.

Grover was lying on a couch in the common room, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.

"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"

I didn't answer.

"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"Just... tired."

I turned so he couldn't read my expression,"

"That won't stop a satyr from reading your emotions." Dionysus says yawning before he picked up a wine magazine ignoring everyone.

"and started getting ready for bed.

I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger."

"When's she not in danger?" Annabeth sighed and everyone else wondered what trouble Andy will get into further into the story.

"The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.

For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"Andy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."

"This isn't going to end well." Nico muttered.

"His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

I mumbled, "Okay, sir."

"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

"You're not helping Chiron." Athena said.

"Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.

"Right," I said, trembling.

"Wim-" Ares started but stutters to a stop with the glare Poseidon was giving him.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Andy. That's nothing to be—"

"Chiron that's not what you're supposed to say."

"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."

"Andy—"

But I was already gone.

On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.

The other kids were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.'

All the gods glared at the book making Annabeth fidget as she was the one holding it.

"They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.  
What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.

"Oh," one of them said. "That's cool."

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,

"Stalker" Apollo, and Hermes chorus only to be slapped by Artemis.

"so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.

Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

"He probably scared him to Hades and back." Annabeth said smiling yet shaking her head.

"Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"

I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

He winced. "Look, Andy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"

"Grover—"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."

"Ten drachmas she doesn't believe him."

"Deal" Hermes said excepting Apollo challenge.

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

"Thanks for the drachmas" Apollo said smiling.

"His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

"Why fancy script, they all have dyslexia?" Athena asks Dionysus who shruged. "I like to see them struggle trying to read it."

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009

"What's Half—"

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."

My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.

"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."

He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

"That's rude." Demeter comments.

"It came out harsher than I meant it to."

"Good" Demeter huffed and muttered something about a poor satyr.

"Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Andy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."

I stared at him.

All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him- even with boys. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me."

"You lost sleep over the satyr?" Artemis asked Andy nodded, not looking at anyone.

"Her fatal flaw is personal loyalty." Annabeth sounded proud.

"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

'Why does that sound familiar?' Athena thought.

"The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen." Zeus' eyes popped- as well as many other gods and goddesses, including Poseidon's.

"I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

"The fates" The demigods looked down sadly.

"All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me."

Poseidon paled considerably, which doesn't go unnoticed to the others but none of them knew what to say to him. None of them except for Andy, who walked straight up to her father and whispered in his ear "the string was not mine."

"I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" I said. "Hey—"

"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

"Not funny, Andy. Not funny at all."

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

"Not seeing them won't stop them." Athena says gravely.

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.

Everyone, even the gods, shuddered.

"Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu."

Poseidon groaned quietly but remembered what Andy said.

'Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

"A lot." The demigods muttered.

" He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Andy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.

He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"A very big deal." Hades says darkly, earning a few glares.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?"

Annabeth shivered 'poor Thalia' she thought.

"Always seventh grade. They never get past seventh."

"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.

No answer.

"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"

Again everyone shivered.

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.

"Alright that's the end of the chapter, who wants to read next?" Annabeth asked looking at Andy. She sighed and took the book.


	4. The First Time I See a Guy Without Pants

"Grover Unexpectedly Loses his Pants," Andy read and everyone started to laugh.

"Nice name for the chapter." Hermes says still laughing.

"Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal."

"That wasn't very smart." Athena said. "Or nice." Hestia added.

"I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was about to die, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he seventh grade?"

Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.

"He never should have let you out of sight." Poseidon said with a twinge of worry in his voice.

'Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.

"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.

A word about my mother, before you meet her.

"Sally's awesome." Annabeth said while smiling.

"And how would you know this?"Athena asked her daughter skeptically.

"Sally knows over half the demigods at camp half-blood. She treats them like they were her own kids." Annabeth said still smiling and now Poseidon was smiling too.

"Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.

Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma."

"Why didn't you help her Poseidon?" Artemis asked.

"I tried" Poseidon sighed. "She wouldn't let me."

"The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad."

"Awwwwww so sweet" Aphrodite cooed.

"I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.  
See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea."

"Hmm, she's good. Not a lie but not the truth. She's coming with me for my next theft or prank."

"No Hermes, she's not."

"But uncle P-"

"No"

"She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid."

"Understatement of the century." Annabeth muttered and everyone laughed.

"Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.

Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.

I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

"Who could live like that? Aphrodite asked horrified.

"Ares" Hephaestus grunts earning laughter from all the boys and gods, and a glare from Ares who was being looked at disgustingly by Aphrodite.

"Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."

"Where's my mom?"

"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"

"What, that's how she's greeted?" Artemis asks heatedly.

"That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "Father daughter secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out."

"WHAT!" oseidon yelled his eyes looking like a storm of hurricanes ready to attack. All the gods, goddesses, and demigods inch away from him in fear.

"I don't have any cash," I told him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else."

Athena's eyes pop out of her head. 'I wonder… ' she thought.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, she ought to carry her own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."

"At least someone there is partially humane." Artemis states in disgust.

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.

"Never mind" Artemis states with even more disgust then before.

"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."

"Your report card came, brain girl!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer."

"Ugg, This man needs to be removed off the face of the earth." Artemis said in disgust.

"I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home."

"Sarcasm" Apollo says approvingly. "Nice." Only Poseidon saw his daughter wince.

"Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,

or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn."

"It must be pretty bad to be worse than that." Hermes observed.

"But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

Then I heard my mom's voice. "Andy?"

She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.

"Wimp." Ares sneered and Andy glared back at him.

"My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.

Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad."

"See, she's a good mother." Hephaestus said pointedly as Hera just looked away and ignored him.

'I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.

"Oh, Andy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"

Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home."

"Lucky" Hermes, Apollo, and Nico all said.

"We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little girl doing all right?

I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"

I gritted my teeth.

My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe."

"I think she's pretty happy with Paul." Annabeth said and Poseidon smiled. Sally deserved someone special.

"For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.

I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.

Until that trip to the museum ...

"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"

"No, Mom."

"Don't lie to your mother." Hera scolds.

"I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid. She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.

"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."

My eyes widened. "Montauk?"

"Three nights—same cabin."

"When?"

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.

"Probably because he gambled it all away." Nico growled along with many others.

"Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

"That jerk, no woman should have to put up with that." Artemis yelled at the book.

"I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.

"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."

"He better." Poseidon growled

"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

"Bribery, uncle P are you sure I can't take her with me-"

"No Hermes,"

Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Yes, honey," my mother said.

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful."

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the brat apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.

"Do it!" Ares shouted.

"But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.

Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?

"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."

Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.

"I would never bless a being so vile with the gift of intelligence."

"Yeah, whatever," he decided.

He went back to his game.

"Thank you, Andy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.

But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken.

She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car, brat," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."

"Like she'd be the one driving." Poseidon growled

"Like I'd be the one driving."

"Like father, like daughter." Athena says while everyone else laughs.

"I was thirteen. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon.

"How…" Hades asked.

"She must be extremely powerful, and possibly dangerous." Zeus grumbled.

"Only to my enemies uncle."

"Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.

I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,"

Athena and Annabeth shuddered violently at that.

"and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

I loved the place."

"Of course she did." Demeter says shaking her head.

"We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.

As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work."

"What's with the blue food?" Zeus asks. "Blue is my colour!"

"I guess I should explain the blue food."

"Yes, that would be helpful." Zeus muttered.

"See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.

When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.

Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them."

Poseidon just smiled.

"He was kind, Andy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Andy. He would be so proud."

I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive girl with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.

"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"

She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Andy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But... he knew me as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."

I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.

"I visited you once." Poseidon said when questioning glances came his way. Zeus, and Athena looked away when their kids looked at them, feeling guilty.

"I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...

I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.

Poseidon just looked down. "Dad I don't feel that way anymore."

"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"

She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.

"Because I'm not normal," I said.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Safe from what?"

She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.

During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.

Everyone looked at Poseidon. "I don't know if I sent him." He said. "She's only three now."

Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.

Everyone gasped. "Just like Hercules, but he had super strength or something." Nico said in amazement.

"In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.

I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that."

"You were willing to sacrifice your safety, so you and your mom can enjoy time together?" Hera asked amazed and Andy just nodded.

"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Andy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."

My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?

"It does sound confusing when you put it like that." Athena pointed out.

"I'm sorry, Andy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."

She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.

That night I had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.

The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

"Hades?" The elder gods ask nervously. "I hope so." He responds.

I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!

"Ha ha, I win." Zeus taunted.

"I woke with a start.

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten."

"How dare you forget uncle P." Apollo fake scolded.

"Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.

My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover."

"Well then what was he?" Hermes asks.

"If I had to guess" Annabeth starts "It's grover without his pants."

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"

My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Andy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on— and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...

My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Andy. Tell me now!"

I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.

"Okay I'm done. You want to go next?" Andy asked Clarisse who only nodded before grabbing the book and opening to the right chapter.


	5. Mess With the Bull and Get the Horn

"My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting," Clarisse reads.

"She knows bullfighting!" Apollo and Hermes exclaim.

"I didn't know she knew how to bullfight." Poseidon muttered to himself.

"We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas."

"That's my kind of driving." Ares says approvingly.

"Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"

"Of course you said that." Annabeth mutters shaking her head at Andy who was still ignoring everyone.

"Grover's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."

"Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

"He's not going to like that." Dionysus muttered as he flipped a page of the magazine.

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"He just said it didn't matter." Poseidon exclaimed.

"You just said it didn't matter."

"Poseidon, must I say it again? Like father, like daughter." Athena said while the others laugh.

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Andy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

"Of course."

"Then why—"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"Andy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

"Yes drive faster." Poseidon muttered looking slightly pale faced.

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.

My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Camp" The demigods sighed while Dionysus groaned "Camp."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"They weren't old ladies Andy, they were the fates." Hades says ominously.

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Boys!" My mom said.

"She sees sense; I should have made her a huntress."

"She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.

"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

"Please. Please. Please." Poseidon continues the chant lowly.

"I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me. Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

"What!" Poseidon shouted shocked while Zeus just backed into his throne, sensing what was going to come next.

"I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Andy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay..."

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Lightning. That was the only explanation.

"How dare you, you could have killed them!" Poseidon looked murderous, a his hand tightened around his trident.

"We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump.

"Grover!"

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

"He knew there was hope by him saying 'food'?" Apollo laughs and Annabeth nodded.

"They're really close, they even have an empathy link." At this everyone went silent looking at Andy who was looking at the ceiling like she had been for the last fifteen minutes.

"Andy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns."

Athena and Artemis looked at each other wide eyed.

"I swallowed hard. "Who is—"

"Andy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Andy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"What?"

Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too."

"She is very loyal, but she will not be able to cross." Hestia says sadly.

"Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

"No." Poseidon whispers sadly and only Andy heard him.

"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …

"The minotaur Hades says just in time for Poseidon to turn to him and almost jump across the room to pummel him into nothing but dust, but is stopped by a look from his daughter.

"It's alright dad."

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

"We don't have time, Andy. Go. Please."

I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull. I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you—"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."

I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.

Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.

"I really need to get the satyrs to trim that." Dionysus muttered before going back to his magazine.

"Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear—

At this everyone bursts out laughing. "Under wear?" Apollo chokes and Hermes shaked his head.

"I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms."

"No Apollo." Hermes chokes out while laughing. "Not under wear, bright white fruit of the looms."

"—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener."

"Interesting description." Hephaestus mutters allowed.

"I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real. I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.

"She is very wise" Athena comments.

"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min—"

"Unfortunately they same thing can't be said for her daughter." Athena said but the conors of her mouth twitched like she wanted to smile..

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.

I glanced behind me again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win dows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"The minotaur has terrible sight and hearing, right?" Nico asks Annabeth who nods.

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

Oops."

Everyone in the throne room just burst out laughing at that.

"Andy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"Ah the title of th chapter." Demeter nods in understanding.

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

"Keeping me near you? But—"

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

He'd smelled us.

The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us."

The throne room is deadly silent, everyone on edge trying to figure out what happens to the poor girl.

"My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Andy! Separate! Remember what I said."

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.

So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

"NO!" Poseidon yelled shocked and everyone looked at him with pity.

"We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"She is very brave." Artemis says her head down, as with everyone else's.

"Run, Andy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"Mom!"

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.

"Hades" Poseidon tries to shout, but it comes out as a whimper. Hades just looked down ashamed slightly by his future actions.

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I couldn't allow that.

"You do not want to see Andy when she's angry." Annabeth says. "When she was sixteen she took out a full army of monsters on her own." Everyone just stared at her gaping.

"I stripped off my red rain jacket.

"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.

I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.

I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen like that."

"Of course it didn't," Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

"How…" Ares asks with a blank look on his face.

"How did I do that?"

"That's what we want to know." Zeus says, wondering himself how powerful this demigod is.

"I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils. The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light,

"Let's hope that doesn't happen. Young Andy has already lost her mother, she doesn't need to lose her best friend too." Hera said surprising everyone.

"rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might."

"It's not going to work princess." Ares said smirking.

"The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!"

Ares just sat in his throne with a look of pure shock on his face.

"The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.

The monster charged.

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage."

Everyone gasped.

"The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.

The monster was gone.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go."

"She hero is very loyal." Hera notes.

"That's not necessarily a good thing." Athena responds to her step mother.

"The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a girl, her blond hair curled like a princess in a Disney movie.

They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "She's the one. She must be."

"One of your daughters Aphrodite?"

"I'm almost positive she's not."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "She's still conscious. Bring her inside."

The throne room was silent. "Annabeth?" Athena asks looking at her daughter.

"I heard the noise and came outside."

"What about the 'she's the one' comment?"

"The child of the prophecy." Everyone looked at Andy- most forgot she was there. Yet she still wouldn't look back. This was the longest day of her life. She fought a war, her free will was stolen, along with her mortal life, and she was sitting in the same room as the man she loved- only he didn't know that yet.


	6. Cards With the Fat Guy in Tiger Print

"**I Play Pinochle With a Horse," **Thalia read.

"A horse?"

"Chiron you idiot." Artemis said slapping Apollo on the back of the head.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"Is that a demigod dream?"

"I don't think so lord Hermes." Annabeth says while all the others minus Hermes are trying not to laugh.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"Oh, much more than a dozen." Hera says smiling.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest.**

"A scorpion?" Apollo asked, Andy just shrugged.

**My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"It had only been three days, but he hadn't slept." Annabeth said matter of factly.

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"That's not a very good idea." Apollo says to the gods and demigods, were shocked that Apollo actually said something serious.

**"Urn, Andy, it isn't a good idea-"**

"Oh no" Apollo groans."I think like the goat.".

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for three days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

Everyone looked down at this.

**He looked down.**

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"Wow, that was depressing." Hermes said.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

"Never." Poseidon said looking at his daughter worried, she hadn't spoken, or even acknowledge anyone in quite awhile.

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.**

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

"If only he'd believe us when we tell him." Annabeth says shaking her head.

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to **_**protect **_**you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

**And not just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was a little girl, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

"Aww" all the girls coo.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"Oh no" Athena said shaking her head. "Satyrs can't have ambrosia or nectar, it'll burn them up."

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"Is that good?" Apollo asks. "For Andy yes, for Nancy, no." Nico answered with a snort.

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

"Poor Andy" Hestia sighs sadly.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architectureâ€"an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arenaâ€"except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

Everyone laughed except for Dionysus who went back to his wine magazine muttering something about stupid brats.

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

Dionysus scoffed from behind his magazine and muttered, "You bet I could."

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, **

Annabeth huffed and there is a lot of snickers.

**but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

"He just told you he was Chiron and you called him Mr. Brunner." Thalia said shaking her head.

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers **_**B**_**.**

**"Ah, good, Andy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, **_**if **_**there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

At this everyone snorted.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Andy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Andy's bunk? We'll be putting her in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With a deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. **

"What's that supposed to mean?" Athena demanded.

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, **

**but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, **_**You killed a minotaur! **_**or **_**Wow, you're so awesome! **_**or something like that.**

**"You drool in your sleep."**

Everyone chuckled at that.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

"Names have Power, Amy. Don't go using them for no reason."

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young lady, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

"Obviously you haven't changed much." Hermes snorted.

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Andy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"Of course you are my child."

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first.**

**We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

**"You **_**do **_**know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, **_**sir**_**," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"So were we." Half of the Olympian council muttered while Dionysus just frowned.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all **_**civilized **_**young men to know the rules."**

**"Well I'm not a young man, I'm a girl. And I don't care about your card game."**

**"I'm sure she can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Bruner/Chiron" why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, **_**I **_**was his star student. He expected **_**me **_**to have the right answer.**

**"Andy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young lady, are you bidding or not?"**

"Jerk"

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"She didn't see the orientation film? Well that explains her slowness." Annabeth muttered and everyone just stared at her.

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Andy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, **_**Not! **_**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital **_**G**_**, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"SMALLER!?" All the gods boom causing Olympus to shake.

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

**And there it was again, distant thunder on a cloud less day.**

**"Young lady," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Andromeda Jackson"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come **_**so-o-o **_**far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this girl and tell me."**

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Andy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that **_**immortal **_**means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

If anyone looked at Andy in that moment they would see a tear make its way down her cheek. Only Apollo did.

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Andromeda Jackson, that some day people would call **_**you **_**a myth, just created to explain how little girls can get over losing their mothers?"**

"Harsh."

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. she's just lost her mother. She's in shock."**

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with brats who don't even believe.'"**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

Zeus looked pointedly at Dionysus who seems to have become hard of hearing.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

"Old habits." Zeus muttered, and Dionysus still doesn't 'hear' anything.

**More thunder.**

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

At his description Dionysus said something about ungrateful brats and turned away from everyone else, who were all snickering at his description.

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

_**"Di immortales, **_**Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this girl the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Andy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

Aphrodite was glaring at Dionysus.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

"I know, we couldn't believe it either." Apollo said smirking at Andy who wouldn't look at him.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

Dionysus smiled. "Finally I shall beat that centaur."

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

"Drat"

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, **_**again, **_**about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Andy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

"She still cares about that satyr after everything that's happened?"

"Yes mother" Annabeth answers "Andy wouldn't be Andy otherwise." Andy felt all their eyes on her, but didn't turn to face them.

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Andy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in **_**America**_**?"**

"Well, isn't she slow" Athena stated.

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Andy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they died."**

There were many "Idiot" that filled the air.

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**

**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Andy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

**It was all too much, especially the fact that **_**I **_**seemed to be included in Chiron's **_**we, **_**as if I were part of some club.**

"No not club, camp."

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he was going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Andy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"Okay, it's rather late the demigods should sleep, we will continue tomorrow.


	7. My Sun

Andy was the first one out of the throne room. She knew she was acting childish, she just couldn't bring herself to care. She felt violated, and dirty- with everyone reading her thoughts and memories. What gave the Fates' the right to hand over her life story and have it read to an audience? Sure they were the oldest of all the immortals, and their word was law, but come on!

She missed the water. The constant flow of the ocean, the affect it had on her powers and body. So she headed to the only source of sea water on Olympus. A large reservoir behind her fathers palace. It took longer than she liked to reach it. When she did she walked over the surface until she reached the center. Then she shot to the bottom.

It was quite the surprise when she ended up in an underwater, down scaled version of the throne room she just vacated. This throne room however only had three throne's. Merpeople and other water entities were milling around. But she was to shocked to realize she should just leave. A woman she recognized with black hair, blue skin, and two small horn's on her forehead made her way over. Amphitrite: The queen of the seas, Poseidon's wife. She wanted to bolt, but she knew it was to late.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Andy gave her a bow.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know any of this was down here. I'll leave you now." She took several steps back, but Amphitrite wasn't finished.

"I asked who you are."

"My name is Andy Jackson."

She raised an eyebrow, "That is a mortal name. How can you breathe, see, or not be crushed from the pressure down here?" Andy gulped.

"I- I- well I..." Amphitrite studied her face, eyes narrowed.

"You are one of my husbands bastard children." Andy bristled but didn't say a word.

"That's enough Amphitrite." Andy turned hearing her fathers voice.

"I'm sorry father, I didn't know any of this would be down here. I just missed the water."

"You are welcome here, when ever you desire." To prove his point he gestured to the front of the room where a new throne stood. Andy blushed. "I would like a word. Amphitrite I will see you later." He walked off before she could answer, Andy right behind him.

(Andy's POV)

I followed my father to a smaller room, there was a large desk, and a few chairs on the opposite end of around a fire place where Greek Fire burned. My father sat in one of the chairs so I sat across from him. He studied me making me fidget uncomfortably.

"You've been quiet during the reading."

"I don't like everyone hearing my thoughts, and reading my memories."

"Yes, it is rather intrusive. Is there something you don't want everyone to hear?" He rose his eyebrows at me.

"Nothing bad, but..."

"But?"

"Well I'm only thirteen in this book, but what about when I'm fifteen and I fall in love? Or when I'm seventeen when I..." I trailed off not wanting to finish that sentence. He coughed awkwardly obviously understanding what I was about to say. I felt my cheeks heat up.

"Well, I don't think we can ask the other gods to skip parts- but when.. parts like that come up you can warn me. I'll leave the room, and take your friends with me." That was a relief, not a solution, but having my father out of the room when they read about me losing my virginity was a huge plus. I let out a sigh. "Are we close in your time? Do we see each other often?"

"Well, I see you more than most demigods see their parent. Once or twice every couple of years. I was just in Atlantis three or four days ago. And you came to see me on my birthday last year." He smiled at me, and I couldn't help but feel wonderful that I caused such a reaction. That is the demigod curse, desperate for any kind of affection from our godly parent.

"I'm glad. I never liked the rule of staying away from my demigod children. Now that you are not a demigod, we can spend more time together. If you ever proclaim yourself that is."

"I didn't want to be a goddess, it was tempting when I was offered, but I turned the offer down. The Fates took my choice away."

"So are you just defying them by not proclaiming yourself?" He sat forward like my answer truly interested him.

"Not completely, I know once I finish the transition I'll be bound by ancient law. I'm already immortal so I'm doomed to watch the people I love age and die. But I can still see them- have an affect on their lives like this. The Olympian throne is nothing to sacrifice since I never wanted it, and still don't. But yes I suppose part of it is wanting the Fates not to get their way because they took my choice away from me, it's only a small part of the reason tho."

"Very well, I will be waiting however for the day a child of mine sits on the council, most of them are Zeus' children." He chuckled, and I couldn't help but smile at him. "There are a few things I must see to, but you are welcome to stay. Explore if you would like somewhere to rest just ask someone will show you where to go." I stood and bowed to him, taking the hint of my obvious dismissal.

"Thank you father, but I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. I'll see you in the morning, to continue the reading." He smiled at me as I left the room.

Once back on the surface I just lay there floating. I was pulling the water back and forth creating small waves. All of a sudden my beautiful golden dress turned into a tiny golden two piece bathing suit. I laughed and looked around, sure enough sitting on a large rock was Apollo. I stood and walked over to him raising an eyebrow in question and gesturing to my new apparel. He smiled his beautiful smile and shrugged. I felt a tightness in my chest.

"You look good in gold."

"You've told me that before." I smiled.

"We've met, in your time?"

"Yes, many times. I've had interactions with all the Olympians."

"Who's your favorite?" He asked smirking.

"My father of course."

"Second favorite?"

"Hmm.. you, or Hermes. I'm not sure." I laughed at his dejected face. He was just to adorable when he was pouting. Truth was he and my father were both my favorite, and Hermes was second.

"Nice tattoo's." He gave me a devilish smile pointing to the two small tridents dangerously low on my hips. I felt myself blush.

"Thanks, now can you snap your fingers and put me in clothes?"

"Why would I do that, when you look so good how you are. I feel a poem coming on."

"No! No poems. Just clothes." He let out a long sigh.

"Fine." He snapped his fingers and I was in a very short gold skirt, with golden pumps, and a fitted white top with gold dust around the neckline. It was a little to reveling, and... well gold for my taste, but I wasn't going to complain. "Now, tell me how we met." I sat next to him on the bolder over looking the water.

"You gave me and a few other demigods along with the Hunters a ride to Camp. You let Thals drive the Sun, which was an awful idea." He laughed and I felt myself melting, I knew I should run. Get as far away from him as I could. I missed the feel of his lips, the warmth of his body against mine, if I stayed with him much longer I wouldn't be accountable for my actions. But as much as I knew I should leave, I couldn't. My brain was screaming at me to go, but my heart was telling me to stay just a little longer.

"Will that be in this book?"

"No, since this book is about my first year at camp,I'm guessing there will be a book for each year. I didn't meet you until the beginning of my third year."

"I don't come in until the third book?! Please tell me I beat Hermes at least."

"Sorry, I met Hermes second year. At the beginning and then at the end." He pouted again, and it took all my self control not to brush his chin length blond hair back from his face. "On the plus side, now that you know you can make bets against him." I laughed at the smile creeping its way across his face. All of a sudden he jumped up.

"I have to go, or it's gonna be a dark day in New Zealand. Do you want to come with me?" I should say no, I should take this chance and get far away.

"Sure." Stupid heart. 


	8. The Toilet Princess

We entered the throne room still laughing. I sobered up immedietly when all the gods, and demigods turned to look at us. I took a step sideways to be further apart from Apollo, but unfortunately he stepped with me. He poked me in the ribs playfully not realizing, or simply not caring that all the gods were watching. I swatted his hand away, trying, and failing not to smile.

I knew I had to get my emotions under control, I didn't want Aphrodite to feel anything I may be feeling. I cleared my mind as I gave Zeus a quick bow. My father also received a bow before I took my seat.

"So nice of you to join us niece." Zeus looked me over- I was thankful I had the forethought to ask Apollo to change me into an appropriate dress. (It was of course gold, but it was beautiful. The fabric clung to me and looked like liquid gold was poured over my body when I moved. It was backless cut- dangerously low. A golden rope was criss crossed around my torso creating large X's on the exposed skin of my back, and tied around my neck. It hung to the floor, and had a large slit upto mid thigh on both sides.)

"The pleasure is all mine uncle I assure you." I gave him my best innocent smile. And ignored the small chuckles, and gasps around me.

"Why are you late?" My father shot an accusatory look at Apollo.

"There was an.. incident, with the Sun Chariot. It's all under control. Should I read Father, or would you like to?"

"I will read." He held out his hand and Zeus handed him the book.

(General POV)

**"I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom"** Poseidon's deep voice echoed across the throne room.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving** **Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

Everyone laughed at that even Hera.

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the Minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's **_**her**_**."**

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt likeI had something on my face, or they were expecting me to do a flip.**

"Can you do a flip?" Nico asked, Andy smiled and shrugged.

"I never tried."

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane** **on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

"She moved!" Apollo sat forward.

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

"Well that's true." Annabeth muttered.

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

**"Come along, Andy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.**

"Not likely." Mr. D snorted.

**I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."**

"So loyal." Poseidon muttered before continuing.

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Andy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable.** **To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him or her safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

**"But he did that!"**

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

"There she goes, blaming herself for everything." Annabeth sighs.

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that **_**was **_**Grover's second chance, Andy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago.**

**Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age..."**

**"How old is he?"**

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Andy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

**"That's horrible."**

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."**

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

"Yes." Annabeth, Andy, and Thals all sighed looking down. Making everyone, even Apollo god of prophecies, wonder what happened.

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word **_**death. **_**The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

"You're not seriously thinking…" Athena asks only to have Andy nod and smile.

**"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."**

**"Yes, child?"**

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

"Until we know more?" Hestia asked confused.

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

**"Come, Andy. Let's see the woods."**

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

**"My own—?"**

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size four will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),**

"Why not?" Hermes asked, getting only eye rolls for an answer.

**the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheatre, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

**the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheatre, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

**Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird.**

**"We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

"I don't think that was her point."

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. **

**They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

All the gods looked a little offended at this sentence.

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory.**

Hephaestus nodded his head.

**Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass.**

Demeter smiled hearing this.

**Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at.**

Apollo was smiling.

**They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.**

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

Hestia smiled. 'She saw me.' She thought.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.**

Zeus nodded his head, and touched his master bolt.

**Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

Hera smiled. 'that is a nice cabin.'

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

**"Their cabins look empty."**

**Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

"Well at least no one ever stays in two." Hera says rudely while glaring at Thals.

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.**

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway** **and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

"You were calling her." Artemis said observantly. Poseidon smiled.

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Andy."**

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists.**

Ares smirked.

**The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

"Clarisse" Andy smiled at the girl.

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, **

**I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

"PARTY PONIES RULE" Apollo and Hermes shouted high fiving each other.

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."**

**He smiled down at me. **_**"The **_**Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Andy, I am."**

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

"Idiot." was muttered by a lot of people in that room. Andy shrugged sheepishly.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about **_**should **_**be. The truth is, I **_**can't **_**be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

"Mine either." most people in the room said.

**"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

**"Why depressing?"**

"I'll give you a clue." Hades said under his breath.

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

**The blonde girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

Annabeth sighed. "You know my name is Annabeth yet you still call me 'the blond girl'!"

"Sorry blond girl." Andy smiled widely at her.

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

Hermes snorted.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek.**

**There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

"That's because it was an architecture book." Annabeth said shaking her head.

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Andy from here?"**

"**Yes, sir."**

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on **_**old.**_

"Hey!" Hermes yelled offended.

**The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ?**

"A caduceus." Hermes sighed.

**A caduceus.**

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

"Well maybe if all of you claimed your kids it wouldn't look like that." Andy said scowling, her gift from the gods for the war was gone now, and that made her angry. Several gods glared at her, but she didn't pay them any attention.

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Andy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me..**

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.**

Everyone laughed none as loud as Hermes an Apollo.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

**Annabeth announced, "Andy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."**

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned.**

"Is it that bad?" Demeter asks the demigods. They all nodded.

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.**

**"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Andy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

**He was about nineteen, and he was very handsome. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

**"This is Luke," She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor, for now."**

**"For now?" I asked.**

"Aw she doesn't want to leave him!" Aphrodite squeaked. Hermes was smiling proudly.

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

"You can tell who my kids are." Hermes said.

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

**The campers all laughed.**

The gods with kids all looked a tad ashamed.

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

**"I've already seen it."**

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

**"What?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

**"To get killed? To watch their mother die?"**

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was **_**the **_**Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."**

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."**

"Gajillion isn't a word." Athena stated.

"**Monsters don't die Andy. They can be killed, but they can't die."**

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

The demigods laughed.

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them arche-types. Eventually, they re-form."**

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

**"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

"How did you know about Alecto?" Hades asked Annabeth.

"I heard Chiron telling Mr. D. Plus she talks in her sleep."

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

**"You talk in your sleep."**

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her.**

Hades smiled an extremely creepy smile.

**"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

**"Look, is there anything we **_**can **_**say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Andy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

"I should have known." Annabeth says shaking her head. Andy glared playfully at her.

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said.** **"She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Andy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

**"He's dead. I never knew him."**

Poseidon winced.

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.**

**"Your father's not dead, Andy."**

**"How can you say that? You know him?"**

**"No, of course not."**

**"Then how can you say—"**

**"Because I know **_**you.**_ **You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

**"You don't know anything about me!"**

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

**"How—"**

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek.** **And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Andy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

**"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

"Most demigods do." Andy sighed.

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. **

"That sounds… pleasant."

"Shut it Apollo."

"You got it sis"

"Don't call me sis!"

**Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

_**''Erre es korakas!"**_ **Annabeth said, which I somehow under stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded.**

"Much worse." Athena says looking at her smiling daughter.

**"You don't stand a chance."**

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. **

**She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

**"Andy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

"Why the little…" Ares trails off murmuring death threats towards Andy who just smiled.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbie's, little miss Prissy."**

**"My name is Andy."**

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

"Yeah. Go Clarisse!" Ares yelled surprising everyone else in the room. But Clarisse only blushed, and looked down embarrassed at what was to come.

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. **

**She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I **_**could **_**think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

"Yeah Dionysus, you should have someone get on that." Nico said with a cheeky grin

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like she's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, She was so girly looking."**

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

"Was not." Annabeth huffed.

"You wee to."

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. **

"Ewwwww." Aphrodite shrieked hearing this.

**I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.**

At this Poseidon started smirking and the broad grin on Ares face started to fade..

**I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

Everyone laughed except for Ares and Clarisse.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

More laughter.

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her.**

**But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

Poseidon could barely continue because he was chuckling so hard but he pulled himself together and went on.

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared.**

Annabeth groaned while Andy laughed.

**She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

"So you're water resistant?" Athena asked.

"Yes, I only get wet if I want to."

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**

**"I don't know."**

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. **

"I feel bad that that happened to you." Andy said looking sheepish.

"You should Prissy." Andy just rolled her eyes.

**She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new girl. You are totally dead."**

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

Several more chuckles.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

"A little bit of both." Annabeth replied when questioning glances came her way.

"**What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," She said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"Alright that's the end of the chapter, who wants to read next?" Poseidon asked.

"I will." Hera sighed taking the book from Poseidon.


	9. Ariel

"**My Dinner goes up in Smoke." **Hera reads.

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

"That was not fun." Annabeth said frowning.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), **

"That's Pan, not a 'goat-man'!" Hermes huffed defending his son.

**and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

"Oh someone's giving the cold shoulder."

"Shut it Apollo."

"Whatever you say sis."

"Don't call me sis."

"Would you two be quiet." Zeus thundered.

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

**"Whatever."**

"She was trying to be sympathetic, daughter of Athena." Hestia said.

"I know." Annabeth says, her eyes turning to Andy.

**"It wasn't my fault."**

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it **_**was **_**my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

**"Who?"**

**"Not who. What.** **The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

"Oh my Oracle!" Apollo sat forward.

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below.**

**They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

"Well I guess you sort of are." Demeter said thoughtfully.

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts and they don't care if you're male or female."**

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

"After everything a couple of Naiads are your breaking point?" Hermes raised his eyebrow. Andy just shrugged blushing slightly.

"Sissy." Ares scoffed.

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Andy? You **_**are **_**home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

**"I mean **_**not human. **_**Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

"Did you seriously ask that?" Hephaestus asked shaking his head. Andy blushed again.

**"I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Andy. He's one of the Olympians."**

**"That's ... crazy."**

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?" **

Andy winced, something only Hera noticed.

All the gods, except for the maiden goddesses bushed slightly including the big three.

**"But those are just—" I almost said **_**myths **_**again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, **_**I **_**might be considered a myth.**

"It happened a little quicker then Chiron assumed." Thals snorted. She had been so quiet most people forgot she was there.

**"But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

**"Then who's your dad?"**

Athena smiled.

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

Athena looked questioningly at Annabeth.

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."**

**"He's human."**

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

**"Cabin six."**

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Both mother and daughter asked annoyed.

**"And my dad?"**

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

"I did," Poseidon said smiling.

"Which you shouldn't have done." Zeus shot back.

"She could see through the mist, she would've figured it out." Andy defended.

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble.**

"I'm glad I didn't say anything." Annabeth said smiling at Poseidon, earning one in return. Athena frowned.

**"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his daughter. Sometimes it happens."**

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

Hermes looked slightly angry, the other gods slightly ashamed, the demigods sad, and Apollo smiled.

"I always claim my kids." Andy smiled at him before she could stop herself, or even realize she was doing it.

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Andy. They ignore us."**

"Horrible." Andy sighed.

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter,** **you're probably not a real powerful force. **

"Hey!" Demeter, and Aphrodite, exclaimed.

"I apologize." Annabeth said truthfully. "I don't think that way anymore, I only wish I didn't have to learn the hard way." The gods all looked curious.

**The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

"Hermes cabin." The demigods mutter and Hermes smiled.

"Herm I bet you twenty drachmas you come into this story before me."

"You're on." Apollo winked at me.

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

Athena looked at her daughter, 'why she would go to camp so young.'

**"Why did you come so young?"**

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time …"**

"It didn't go well." Annabeth sighed.

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

Andy smiled at Annabeth.

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

**"Ambrosia."**

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you **_**do **_**know something?"**

**"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

**She clenched her fists.**

**"I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so **_**normal**_**."**

"You were on Olympus before?" Athena asked.

"Yes."

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council.**

**"But... how did you get there?"**

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already.**

**"You **_**are **_**a New Yorker, right?"**

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. **

_Stolen…_ Athena thought. _Something important… The Lightning Thief…_ Athena gasped. She had figured out what was stolen.

"Athena, what is it?" Artemis asked. Athena looked at the demigods. Andy nodded her head, and placed a finger over her lips tell Athena not to tell.

"It's nothing"

**And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, **

"Aww thats kind of her." Hestia smiled while tending the flame.

**but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm **_**not **_**too young. If they would just tell me the problem …"**

"You were thirteen, that is too young for a quest. Now that your older I'll give you a quest." Athena tol her daughter.

"I've been on three official quests, one quest we left Camp to do without permission, and I helped fight in the war of the great prophecy." Athena and the other gods just started at her.

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

Annabeth smiled. That's exactly what she had been doing.

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. **

"Those kids are my kids." Hermes said looking pointedly at the other gods.

**Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**

** Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

Hermes smiled. Maybe what May saw was false. Maybe everything would work out okay.

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

"My kids would never lie about stealing something." Hermes said proudly.

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

Hermes frowned. _Why was Luke acting like that?_

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, **

_He better not try anything. _Poseidon thought_._

**but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

"Nice description." Hermes and Apollo both said, tho Hermes was being sarcastic and Apollo was laughing.

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.**

Hermes looked troubled by that.

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Andy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of a middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries including lip gloss and floral soap, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

"Hey!" Apollo huffed.

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special came to the camp."**

**"Somebody special?"**

"Somebody very special." Poseidon said smiling.

**"Don't worry about it, princess," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. He helped me to my feet and smiled. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell blowing, even though I'd never heard one before.**

"One of the perks of being my daughter." Poseidon gloated.

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

Artemis smiled. Her cabin was truly beautiful.

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean **_**straight **_**out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

"Oh and what a lovely butt it is" Apollo winked, Andy's face went scarlet, and Poseidon gave him a warning glare.

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

Athena smiled at the thought of her children.

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

Ares smiled at Clarisse.

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—non-alcoholic, of course."**

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "**_**Blue **_**Cherry Coke."**

"Still with the blue food?" Zeus rolled his eyes.

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

"Come down, sea princess. Come down." Hades said smiling creepily.

**"Here you go, Andy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.**

**I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest straw berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

**"You're kidding."**

"No, it really does smell good." Apollo said nodding his head and smiling.

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

**I was next.**

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

Poseidon smiled at that.

**Finally, I made a silent plea. **_**Whoever you are, tell me. Please. I'm so lost.**_

_I will daughter. _Poseidon thought frowning at the desperation in her prayer.

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats.**

"Is that how you treat our kids?" Athena says sounding disgusted.

**Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

Ares himself cheered.

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Amanda Johnson."**

Poseidon glared at Dionysus.

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Andy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along.**

"When don't they lead?" Nico asked, but he didn't get an answer.

**We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

The gods smiled at this.

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite. Watching my favorite movie with her as a child: The Little Mermaid. **

Hera smiled. _Sally was a good mother._

"You can't figure out who your father is, but your favorite movie is about a mermaid, you can identify seashells, and you compare everything to water. You're not to bright are you Ariel?" Apollo laughed, but Andy flinched, and grimaced at his old nickname for her. Something no one failed to see. Apollo looked at her confused, but she didn't comment.

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"That doesn't sound good." Poseidon said slightly worried.

"I'm sure she'll be fine." Hestia said reassuringly.

"Alright, who wants to read next?" Hera asked. Zeus held out his hand, and took the book.


	10. Spinning Trident

"**We Capture a Flag," **Zeus read.

Ares shouted. "Go Ares cabin!" Andy didn't bother to tell him that didn't win.

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

"That is normal in our world." Athena said.

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. **

"Well it would be rude to talk about us in the past tense since we are still alive." Hades muttered.

**I discovered Annabeth was right **

"When am I not." Annabeth smiled at Andy.

"Oh I don't know how about when you convinced me to listen to the sirens song with you, and Will had to save us both?" Annabeth looked down sheepishly.

"You listened to the sirens?!" Both Athena, and Poseidon yelled.

"What did you see?" Athena asked, but both girls looked down and muttered, "nothing." Zeus cleared his throat and continued reading.

**about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,** **but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow.**

"Aren't you awful at archery to Uncle P?" Hermes asked. Getting a small grunt for an answer.

**He didn't complain, even when he had to de-snag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

At this everyone in the throne room laughed.

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. **

**But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

**"There's more where that came from, prissy," she'd mumble in my ear.**

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing,**

"Figures." All of the demigods said at once.

**and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the girl who had beaten the Minotaur.**

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, **

"Thank the gods." Ares mumbled.

"You're telling me." Andy shuttered at the thought of being a child of Ares.

**or as good at archery as the Apollo kids.**

This time it was Andy who said "Thank the gods."

"Hey, my kids are awesome."

"Oh I agree, but I don't want to be one of them." Even the thought grossed her out.

**I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork** **or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants. **

"Well," Dionysus said. "The feeling's mutual Amy."

**Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. **

**But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

"No one did." Annabeth says remembering how puzzled everyone was.

**Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. **

**I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came.**

Poseidon frowned wondering why he hadn't claimed her yet.

**Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...**

"I'd like to see you try." Hades said.

"Oh you will uncle."

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes.**

Hermes and Poseidon both looked down guiltily.

**So okay, maybe gods had important things to do.**

**But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? **

**Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. **

**Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

Now all the gods with children looked down guiltily.

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long.**

"Only riptide works for me." Andy smiled pulling the pen out and uncapping it.

**Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

Hermes snorted.

**The campers snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Andy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" **_**Whap! **_**"Lunge!" **_**Whap! **_**"Now, back!" **_**Whap!**_

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

Hermes grimaces at that while Poseidon smiled.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Andy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

"Why do I think demo means him beating up my niece?" Zeus asks. Andy and the other demigods were shocked by the question.

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Andy get pounded.**

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Andy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Andy?"**

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

Everyone is leaning forward in anticipation, wondering what will happen. Ares was rubbing his hands together.

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right.**

**I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

"Not gonna work princess." Ares said grinning.

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones.**

"What was that Ares?" Aphrodite asks him.

**The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest**

**The other campers were silent.**

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

"What are you apologizing for?" Hera asks, Andy shrugged.

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Andy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

"I wonder what she could do with a balanced sword." Artemis says thoughtfully.

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Andy could do with a balanced sword..."**

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall.**

Poseidon winced.

**Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

Everyone perked up wondering what had happened.

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

**"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask.** **"He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

"Unforunately there is not a very high chance of that happening." Ares said laughing.

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

_**"Blaa-ha-ha!**_ **He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want **_**me **_**along?"**

**"Of course I'd want you along!"**

"You really are loyal." Demeter said smiling.

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

Artemis shrugged. "That's true my hunters do need somewhere to stay when they visit."

**"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals.**

"No married person should." She says glaring at all the gods that are married and havedemigod children.

**That's her husband's job. **

Zeus huffed awkwardly.

**When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

"I should." Hades mutters.

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. **

**He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

**"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

"Or at least they should be empty." Athena says pointedly at Poseidon and Zeus making Andy and Thals fidget.

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably.**

**"About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes.**

**Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

**Thunder boomed.**

As it did in the throne room.

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

"Here comes my story." Thals said looking down sadly.

**Grover's face darkened. "Sixteen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon.**

**There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. **

**When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

"What happened?" Zeus said with a little worry in his voice.

**"But that isn't fair. It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

**Grover hesitated. "Andy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods.** **They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. **

"No" Zeus turned to Hades. "You shall pay for that."

**A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do.**

Fear is shown in Zeus' eyes.

**He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."**

**He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. **

Zeus looked down sadly, Hades felt sort of bad for sending monsters to torment Thalia.

**She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died,**

"You died?" Thals only nodded.

**Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

Everyone is silent, feeling bad for the daughter of Zeus.

"How are you alive?"

"Andy, and Annabeth saved me."

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much.**

**I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

"Probably not." Poseidon said while looking at his daughter worriedly.

**"Grover," I said, "Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Andy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

**"No," I lied.**

"I like your daughter uncle P." Hermes said smiling.

**"I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you **_**were**_—**you know—you'd never **_**ever **_**be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. **

"Nope, sorry." Hermes said smiling.

**Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

"Finally." Ares said exasperated.

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. **

**From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"**

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one princess."**

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. **

**"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And **_**you **_**are going to help."**

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.**

"of course Apollo has the most kids." Andy sighed rolling her eyes, feeling a twinge in her chest. She ignored the look she could feel Aphrodite giving her. And she didn't even notice the look Apollo himself was giving her.

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. **

"Which is what Aphrodite does most of the time." Hermes said getting a slap from the goddess.

**Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.**

Hephaestus smiled.

**That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

"What else would you use?" Ares asks confused.

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have slept on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

**She kept marching.**

"Oh, cold shoulder." Apollo says only to get hit by Artemis.

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

"What?" Annabeth says after getting glances from the Olympians. "She might have been a daughter of Hermes."

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

"Way to treat your best friend Annie." Andy teased. Both Poseidon, and Athena looked at their daughters, it was hard to believe their children could be friends, not to mention best friends.

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view**_**. **_**Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

"Sure." Hermes drawled sarcasticly.

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

"You should have told us." Annabeth sighed, Andy shrugged.

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

**"Cream the princess!" Clarisse screamed.**

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur. **

"My kids are gonna mess your kid up." Ares said to Poseidon.

**They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. **

**I fell back.**

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

"Get her!" Ares yelled.

**"Give her a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab her hair."**

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of her. Really scared."**

**"The flag is that way," I told her. **

Athena and Annabeth simultaneously groaned.

**I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about the bitch who made our cabin look stupid."**

"NO, get the flag!" Ares shouts.

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

"Your children will ay for teaming up on my daughter Ares." Poseidon looked ready to kill, Clarisse and Ares both looked terrified.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed. **

**As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."**

"That's the punishment?" An outraged Athena asks Dionysus and he only shrugged.

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.**

Ares' smile faded and Poseidon's grew.

**They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

"Woo." Hermes and Apollo shouted.

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

"Ah!" Ares screamed. "You idiot!"

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. **

**The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

Ares groaned and Athena smiled.

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

Realization dawned in everyone's eyes.

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

"Then it's a good plan." Athena said smiling, only to get blasted with sea water.

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

**"No. It **_**was **_**a sword cut. Look at it."**

"The water heals you." Hera stated

Poseidon and Andy nodded.

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

**"I—I don't get it," I said.**

**Annabeth was thinking hard.**

**I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Andy."**

**"What—"**

**"Just do it."**

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is **_**not **_**good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..."**

Zeus huffed.

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "**_**Stand ready**_**!**_** My bow**_**!"**

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

Hades looked confused. "What is a hellhound doing their?"

**It was looking straight at me.**

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Andy, run!"**

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

Poseidon let out a sigh, glad his daughter was safe.

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

_**"Di immortales!"**_ **Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."**

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

The mood darkened.

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Andy's fault! Andy summoned it!"**

"Seriously?" Poseidon asks Ares who is being very quiet.

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Andy, get in the water."**

**"I'm okay."**

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

The demigods smiled remembering the moment.

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."**

"Idiot." Athena muttered under her breath.

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

**"Andy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

"It's about time." Poseidon sighed.

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is **_**really **_**not good."**

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, **

**Father of Horses. Hail, Andromeda Jackson, Daughter of the Sea God."**

"Alright I'm done, who wants to read next?" Zeus asked. Hades held out his hand for the book.


	11. A Trio

"**I Am Offered a Quest," **Hades reads.

**The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three.**

**I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.**

"Awesome" Hermes said.

"lonely." Surprisingly that came from Apollo.

**And I was absolutely miserable.**

**Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid—or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood—I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.**

The gods all look down, feeling sorry for Andy.

**Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back.**

"Who wouldn't?" Hermes asks, but he didn't get a reply.

**The attack had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one; that I was the daughter of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.**

"This won't be the last time they invade camp seaweed brain, get used to it." Annabeth says. Everyone else in the room stared at her wondering what she meant.

**The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. **

**Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.**

**"You're going to need all the training you can get princess," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."**

Everyone grimaced.

**Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.**

Everyone looked at Annabeth quizzically.

**After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan …"**

"Why were you being so rude?" Hestia asked her.

"She's the daughter of my mother's rival. I know it wasn't right for me to treat her like that, but we resolve our issues soon enough."

**Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.**

**I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the **_**New York Daily News, **_**opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.**

_**BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER**_ _**FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**_

_**BY EILEEN SMYTHE**_

Poseidon paled.

_**Sally Jackson and daughter Andy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken.**_

They all glared at Zeus and Hades.

_**The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.**_

_**Mother and daughter had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.**_

"Of course they hadn't seen anything. Mortals never see anything." Artemis said shaking her head.

_**Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepdaughter, Andy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.**_

_**Police would not say whether Andy is a suspect in her mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Andy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.**_

Everyone grit their teeth.

**The phone number was circled in black marker.**

**I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.**

**"Lights out," I told myself miserably.**

**That night, I had my worst dream yet.**

"I hate dreams."

"Good thing you don't have to sleep anymore." Apollo smiled

**I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.**

"Isn't that Los Angeles?" Hermes asked.

Apollo grins wildly. "Yeah..."

**About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. **

"Zeus and Poseidon." Athena stated.

**They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.**

**I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.**

**Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, **_**Give it back! Give it back! **_**Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.**

Everyone laughs at the analogy but Zeus looked confused. _'Give what back?'_

**The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.**

**I yelled, **_**Stop it! Stop fighting!**_

**The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice**_**.**_

Everyone turned to Hades. "Oh come on. My laugh is many things. But it certainly does not sound evil."

_**Come down, little hero, **_**the voice crooned. **_**Come down!**_

**The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.**

**I woke up, sure I was falling.**

**I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.**

**I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.**

**"Come in?"**

**Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."**

**"Why?"**

**"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you."**

"That's reassuring." Hermes laughed.

"Dionysus, you better not touch my daughter."

**Nervously, I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble.**

**For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a child of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive.**

**The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.**

"I wouldn't have sent Dionysus to do it. It probably would have been Hermes." Zeus said then shrank a little under the glare coming from Poseidon.

**Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. **

**A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.**

**"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."**

**I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"**

**He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."**

**I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.**

**But this storm ... this one was huge.**

Everyone looked at Zeus.

**At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.**

**Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel chair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.**

**"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity, the first demigod daughter of my dear uncle."**

**I waited.**

**"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to bow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."**

Poseidon looked at Dionysus. "Barnacle-Beard?"

Dionysus shrugged. "I got it from Athena."

**A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.**

**"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.**

**Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.**

**"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. **

Poseidon glared at Dionysus, who tried to shrink down into his throne.

**But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."**

**"Spontaneous combustion **_**is **_**a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.**

**"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "She wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."**

"How would you like it if I turned you into a bowl of grapes and then turned you into wine." Poseidon said angrily to a scared Dionysus.

**"Mr. D—" Chiron warned.**

**"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the brat is still here when I get back, I'll turn her into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Andromeda Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."**

Dionysus flinched at the glare coming his way.

**Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.**

**He snapped his fingers.**

**The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.**

**Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Andy, please. And Grover."**

**We did.**

**Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.**

"That's probably why Dionysus left early." Hermes smiled.

**"Tell me, Andy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"**

**Just hearing the name made me shudder.**

**Chiron probably wanted me to say, **_**Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast.**_

"You shouldn't lie." Athena, Hestia, and Artemis all said together.

**But I didn't feel like lying.**

**"It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."**

**"You'll meet worse, Andy. Far worse, before you're done."**

**"Done ... with what?"**

"How slow can she be?" Athena muttered under her breath.

**"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"**

**I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.**

"You haven't told her what it is yet." Poseidon rolled his eyes.

**"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."**

"Details." Hades sighed.

**Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."**

**Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.**

**"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?"**

Everyone looked confused at that except for the demigods and Athena.

**Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.**

**Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"**

**My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft.**

**And ... I've also been having these dreams."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.**

**"But it is her quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"**

**"Only the Oracle can determine." **

Apollo saddened slightly thinking of his Oracle.

**Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Andy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."**

The throne room went deadly silent. "My lightning bolt…" Zeus whispers. "WHO STOLE IT!?" He shouts glaring at everyone. "I'll kill her if she has anything to do with it. I'll kill her!"

"Calm brother," Demeter says. "There is no proof that Andy has taken your lightning bolt. I'm sure it was all just a misunderstanding.

Zeus sits back down in his seat but he is still glaring at Poseidon.

"Uncle, if I took it don't you think that would've been mentioned in the story." Zeus didn't respond, he just continued to glare holding his bolt as if he feared it would disappear.

**I laughed nervously. "A **_**what**_**?"**

**"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."**

**"Oh."**

"Oh. Oh is all you say." Zeus said angrily.

**"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."**

Zeus grined wildly.

**"And it's missing?"**

**"Stolen," Chiron said.**

**"By who?"**

"By _whom_." Athena states.

**"By **_**whom**_**," Chiron corrected.**

**Once a teacher, always a teacher.**

"Isn't that right." Dionysus mutters, glancing at Athena.

**"By you."**

"I knew it!" Zeus shouted at Poseidon.

**My mouth fell open.**

**"At least"—Chiron held up a hand—"that's what Zeus thinks.**

"Oh." Zeus says quietly.

**During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument.**

**The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' etcetera. **

The demigods, Hermes, and Apollo laughed.

**Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. **

"Of course he did." Poseidon sighed.

**Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."**

**"But I didn't—"**

**"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne.**

"Would you seriously think that?" Poseidon asked his brother.

"It could happen." Zeus whispers and Poseidon rolled his eyes.

**The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his daughter. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."**

**"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"**

Everyone in the throne room gasps and Zeus looks shocked at Andy.

**Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.**

"Such morbid thoughts for a thirteen year old." Hera says.

**"Er, Andy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the **_**c**_**-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."**

**"Perhaps **_**paranoid," **_**Chiron suggested. **

**"Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.**

**How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. **

**Chiron was waiting for an answer.**

**"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"**

"It didn't work." Athena muttered and Zeus glared at her.

**"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. **

**Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along—the proverbial last straw."**

**"But I'm just a kid!"**

**"Ady," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"**

Everyone chuckled at Grover's analogy.

**"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon—my dad—he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"**

**Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Andy?"**

**"Bad?" I guessed.**

"Very bad." Athena said glancing at her father and her uncle.

**"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."**

**"Bad," I repeated.**

**"And you, Andy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."**

**It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.**

_**I **_**had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.**

**"So I have to find the stupid bolt," **

"My master bolt is _not_ stupid!"

**I said. "And return it to Zeus."**

**"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the daughter of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"**

**"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"**

**"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."**

Apollo smiled sadly.

**"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?"**

**"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."**

**I swallowed. "Good reason."**

**"You agree then?"**

**I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.**

**Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.**

The demigods chuckled.

**"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."**

**"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Andy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."**

**Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trap door.**

**I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.**

**The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else ... a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.**

**I held my breath and climbed.**

**The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled **_**things**_—**severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.**

**By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy.**

**Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.**

Apollo glared..

**Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trap door, but it slammed shut.**

**Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: **_**I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.**_

**I wanted to say, **_**No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. **_

Everyone laughed.

**But I forced myself to take a deep breath.**

**The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. **

**It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely **_**not **_**human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.**

"She is observant." Aphrodite said looking at Andy.

**I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"**

"Vague much." Ares muttered.

**The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.**

**My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.**

**Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: **_**You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.**_

The gods looked at Hades.

**His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: **_**You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.**_

"YES!" Zeus yelled smiling at Andy.

**The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: **_**You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.**_

The silent question on everyone's mind- 'which friend?'

**Finally, Eddie, our building superior, delivered the worst line of all: **_**And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.**_

Zeus groaned at that.

**The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"**

"It doesn't work that way, sorry." Apollo says.

**The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. **

**The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.**

**I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cob webs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.**

**My audience with the Oracle was over.**"

**"Well?" Chiron asked me.**

**I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."**

**Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"**

**"What did the Oracle say **_**exactly?" **_**Chiron pressed. "This is important."**

**My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She ... she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."**

**"I knew it," Grover said.**

**Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"**

**I didn't want to tell him.**

"You should tell him, he could help you." Hestia said sighing.

**What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many.**

**And the last line—I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, **_**Oh, by the way, you'll fail**_**.**

"That does kind of suck, doesn't it?" Apollo said.

**How could I confess that?**

**"No," I said. "That's about it."**

**He studied my face. "Very well, Andy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."**

**I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.**

"Of course he knew, that man can see through any hero." Demeter said.

**"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"**

**"Ah, think, Andy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"**

**"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.**

"They're going to blame me, aren't they?" Hades sighed.

"Sorry uncle, but yes."

**"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."**

**I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. **

Zeus glared at him.

**"Hades."**

**Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."**

"It can't be." Athena said getting the attention of the other gods. "It can't be… He isn't… It's not possible…" Athena trailed off getting lost in thoughts.

"What is it Athena?" Zeus asked concerned.

"Nothing, it just… It just has to be Hades." Athena said looking pale.

**A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"**

**"A Fury came after Andy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched her until she was sure of her identity, then tried to kill her. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."**

**"Yes, but—but Hades hates **_**all **_**heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Andy is the daughter of Poseidon..."**

**"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued.**

**"Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Andy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before she can take on the quest."**

**"Great," I muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."**

"Always looking on the Bright side." Annabeth said sarcastically.

**"But a quest to ..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."**

**"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon.** **I don't pretend to under stand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Andy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."**

"I didn't do it, you must at least see that Athena" Hades asks Athena.

"I'm sorry Hades; there is another option but… I hope for the sake of all the Olympians that it was you." The gods looked at her confused.

**A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.**

Poseidon smiled at his daughter.

**I was ready to take him on.**

**Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld…**

**Whoa, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god.**

"Yes." Poseidon said nodding. "You should listen to yourself more often."

**Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.**

**The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.**

**"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."**

Ares nodded enthusiastically, while Apollo and Hermes stifle there laughter.

**"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades—and I imagine Poseidon does—they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it.** **No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"**

**"You're saying I'm being used."**

The gods looked at the demigods, trying to see if they feel the same way. When none of their children look them in the eye they realize the answer and look away ashamed.

**"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."**

**My dad needs me.**

**Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. **

**I didn't know whether to feel resentful or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.**

Poseidon lookd down at that.

**I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's daughter all along, haven't you?"**

**"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too."**

**I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.**

**"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."**

**"Check," Chiron said.**

**"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."**

**"Check."**

**"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."**

**"That's about right."**

"How are you alive?" Hera asked.

"I'm lucky once in a while."

**I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.**

**"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.**

**"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you."**

**"Oh..." He shifted his hooves. "No... it's just that satyrs and underground places... well..."**

**He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Andy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."**

**I felt so relieved I wanted to cry,** **though I didn't think that would be very heroic.**

"No, it wouldn't." Snorted Ares only to have a salt water shower.

**Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.**

**"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."**

**"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."**

**"Where?"**

**Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."**

**"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane—"**

"NO!" Poseidon yelled looking slightly panicked.

"Yes niece, come into my domain. I would love to blast you out of the sky." Zeus said smirking.

"I love you too uncle." Andy rolled her eyes.

**"No!" Grover shrieked. "Andy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"**

**I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.**

Poseidon, and Andy glared at Zeus again.

**"Andy, think," Chiron said. "You are the daughter of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."**

**Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.**

**"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."**

Poseidon smiled.

**"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help.**

**"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"**

**The air shimmered behind Chiron.**

Athena groaned and looking at her daughter, who was smiling.

**Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.**

**"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, Seaweed Brain,"** **she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon,**

To prove the point Athena glared at Poseidon.

**but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."**

**"If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, Wise Girl?"**

**Her cheeks colored. **

**"Do you want my help or not?"**

**The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get.**

**"A trio," I said. "That'll work."**

Andy and Annabeth smiled at each other, and reached over grasping hands for a moment.

**"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."**

**Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.**

**"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."**

"That's the end of the chapter." Hades said putting the book down.

"Time for lunch, then we will continue." Hestia smiled, and the demigods nodded.


	12. Bus go Boom!

"I'll read." Artemis said, picking up the book and opening it to the right page.

"**I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus," **Artemis reads.

"Already?" Athena asked.

**It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.**

**The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. **

"Girl Scout cookies," Apollo's mouth waters.

"We just ate lunch, pig." Artemis said exasperated.

**The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions—whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. **

"Hopefully it wont be needed," Poseidon grimaces.

Athena nodded. "I agree with him, for once."

**It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.**

"You can eat all yo want now." Hermes smiled, Andy tried to smile back, but it was more of a grimace.

**Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me, had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. **

Athena smiled at her daughter.

**She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. **

**I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.**

**Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.**

Dionysus looked annoyed. "You mean he doesn't get any better?"

**We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.**

Thals flinched.

**Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.**

**"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."**

"Bad pun, Chiron. To obvious." Hermes said shaking his head.

**I heard footsteps behind us.**

**Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.**

**"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."**

**Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.**

"Did not." Annabeth huffed.

"Did too." Andy sing songed, causing Annabeth to stick her tongue out.

**"Just wanted to say good luck princess," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."**

**He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.**

**Luke said, **_**"Maia!"**_

At hearing the word Hermes shoes sprouted wings and flew him out of his throne.

"Maia."

**White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.**

**"Awesome!" Grover said.**

"You bet." Hermes winked.

**Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.**

**I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.**

"I was not blushing." Growled Annabeth.

"Yes you were." Andy sang.

** "Thanks."**

**"Listen, Andy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay princess?"**

"Sure, that's what he wanted." Andy sighed.

**Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out. Then he hugged me.**

**After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."**

"Was not."

**"Am not."**

"Were to!"

"You don't change much, do you?" Apollo laughed.

**"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"**

**"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Andy?"**

"Yes, why do you." Athena asked.

**She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.**

**I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"**

"Smart," Zeus smiled. "She knows her limitations."

"You're just mean," Hera gave him a dirty look. "I'm sure your _children_ have swam before." She said children like it was a curse word.

Hera looked over at Thals.

"I can barely swim," she admitted. "But I've been in the ocean, and didn't drown."

"Don't be scared of the ocean, have fun in the water," He said encouragingly. "I won't let anything happen to you." She smiled widely.

"Thank you uncle."

**He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Andy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."**

**I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"**

**His eyes lit up. "Me?"**

**Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.**

"Satyrs don't fly…" Dionysus trailed off.

_**"Maia!" **_**he shouted.**

Hermes flew out of his throne again.

"Maia." He said agitated. While Apollo laughed.

**He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.**

**"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"**

**"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.**

**Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Andy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."**

"She's a girl," Ares snorted. "No great hero's are girls."

"We'll see cousin." Andy mocked.

**"That's okay. I just wish—"**

**I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. **

**I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke's flying shoes, or Annabeth's invisible cap.**

"I do have a gift for you, why hasn't Chiron given it to you yet?" Poseidon asked mildly annoyed.

**"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."**

**He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.**

**"Gee," I said. "Thanks."**

**"Andy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."**

**I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ... ?**

**I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.**

**"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me.**

Artemis and Andy's thoughts turn to Zoe and the prick Hercules.

**"Its name is Anaklusmos."**

**"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.**

**"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."**

"Good thing too." Andy laughed thinking of Rachel.

**I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals?" How could it not?"**

Almost everyone rolled their eyes at that.

**"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill.**

"I'm telling Rachel he said that."

Annabeth laughed, but then she turned sad. "If we ever see her again." Andy didn't want to say anything, but she knew they weren't going back to their time. The Fates' sent them back to prevent the future from repeating it's self. Meaning their time wont even exist anymore for them to go back to. That future was contained in her, she wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew that Fate was contained in herself as the Goddess of Fate.

**And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are **_**twice **_**as vulnerable."**

**"Good to know."**

"I know right" Nico said sarcasticly.

**"Now recap the pen."**

**I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.**

"Implant a GPS, "Hephaestus suggested.

**"You can't," Chiron said.**

**"Can't what?"**

**"Lose the pen," he said. **

"Already installed?" Hephaestus looked at Andy.

"No, not a GPS."

**"It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."**

"Even better." Hephaestus sighed.

**I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.**

**"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."**

**Sure enough, the pen was there.**

"Awesome." Hermes breathed.

**"Okay, that's **_**extremely **_**cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"**

**Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Andy."**

**"Mist?"**

**"Yes. Read **_**The Iliad. **_**It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. **

**You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."**.

**I put Riptide back in my pocket.**

**For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. **

**I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.**

"I'd say she's dead meat, if she wasn't sitting here." Ares said, sounding disappointed.

**"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time **_**before **_**them, right?"**

**"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, **

"They would only say that if they were Titans."

**which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."**

**"So what was it like ... before the gods?"**

"Not good," Hestia grimaced.

**Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. **

Andy sighed, remembering the friends she lost trying to prevent that from happening once again.

**It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."**

**"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up **_**everything, **_**right?" I may have never met my father, but I was afraid I would mess u, and he would pay the price.**

Poseidon smiled at his daughter.

**Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Andy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. **_**They **_**still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure end less pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."**

"My destiny sucks." Andy said bluntly, getting many questioning looks.

**"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."**

**"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."**

**"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."**

"I'm sure that calmed her right down." Aphrodite said rolling her eyes.

**When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.**

The demigods laughed.

**Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.**

**"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."**

"Idiot." Athena muttered.

**She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."**

**"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?"**

**"I don't hate you."**

**"Could've fooled me."**

"She has a point," Nico pointed out. Annabeth looked away, ignoring everyone.

**She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."**

**"Why?"**

**She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is **_**hugely **_**disrespectful.**

"You bet it is." Athena growled at Poseidon.

**Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."**

**"They must really like olives."**

All of the guys snort.

**"Oh, forget it."**

**"Now, if she'd invented pizza—**_**that **_**I could understand."**

"I agree." Apollo nodded.

**"I said, forget it!"**

**It was fun to tease her, but really I never thought I'd hear a child of the wisdom goddess say something so stupid. Just because our parents didn't get along thousands of years before we were born, she was turning down a new ally. **

Athena grudgingly nodded her agreement, and Annabeth's cheeks stained red,

**In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.**

**Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.**

**Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL? I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.**

"We noticed." Annabeth said.

**Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.**

**I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.**

"Useless man." Artemis growled.

**Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Andy?"**

**I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or something?"**

**"Just your emotions." He shrugged. **

"No big." Apollo waved his hand sarcastically.

**"Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"**

**I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.**

"That's it." Dionysus said.

**"Your mom married Gabe for **_**you," **_**Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."**

"That's disgusting," Aphrodite said.

**"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"**

**"You should be grateful, Andy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. **

**She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."**

"It'll make her feel worse, not better." Annabeth sighs.

**It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it.**

**I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.**

**I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he and Annabeth were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn't been straight with them. I hadn't told them the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest.**

**The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. **

Everyone looked shocked at that. Andy just smiled.

**The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.**

Poseidon looked down ashamed.

**All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.**

"I've got to admit," Hades says. "The she has guts.

_**You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, **_**the Oracle whispered in my mind. **_**You will fail to save what matters most in the end.**_

"Got to love prophecies," Apollo sighed.

_**Shut up, **_**I told it.**

**The rain kept coming down.**

**We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable.**

"You weren't so bad yourself Seaweed Brain." Andy winked, and gave a dramatic bow in her seat.

**She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.**

**The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.**

At this everyone laughed.

**Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up.**

**Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy—enchiladas.**

There are a couple chuckles, but some of the gods looked tense.

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."**

**But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.**

"Wise decision." Athena muttered.

**I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our back packs. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.**

**As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my wrist. **

**"Andy."**

**An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.**

"Hades!" Poseidon growled.

**It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.**

**I scrunched down in my seat.**

**Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds—same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.**

"All three Furies!" Poseidon roared.

"I think a fights going to happen." Ares sounded almost giddy.

**They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.**

_She's here, she's fine._ Poseidon thought.

**The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."**

**"I said if you're **_**lucky**_**," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."**

"Understatement of my lifetime." Annabeth muttered.

**"All three of them," Grover whimpered. **_**"Di immortales!"**_

**"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."**

**"They don't open," Grover moaned.**

"Shotty workmen ship" Hephaestus shook his head.

**"A back exit?" she suggested.**

**There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.**

"Oh great." Poseidon stated sarcasticly.

**"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"**

**"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."**

**"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"**

"Might, but they'll still attack." Hades said matter of factly.

**She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"**

**We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.**

**Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."**

**"So do I," said the second sister.**

**"So do I," said the third sister.**

**They all started coming down the aisle.**

**"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Andy, take my hat."**

"What?"

**"What?"**

"Whoa, weird." Apollo chuckled.

**"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."**

**"But you guys—"**

**"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a child of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."**

**"I can't just leave you."**

"Good friend," Hestia pointed out.

**"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"**

**My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.**

**When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.**

**I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.**

**Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.**

**Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.**

Everyone let out a breath they didn't realize they were holding.

**I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.**

**The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same—I guess those couldn't get any uglier—but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.**

**The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"**

_It? _Athena's thought. Sh_e, where is she. Right?_

**The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw **_**something, **_**all right.**

**"She's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "She's gone!"**

**The Furies raised their whips.**

Athena was wringing her hands.

**Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.**

**What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.**

**The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.**

**Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.**

"Awesome!" Hermes and Apollo shouted.

"Are you insane?!" Poseidon and Athena yell. Andy just shrugged like, 'gotta do what ya gotta do.'

**"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey—whoa!"**

**We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.**

"Their all going to die." Athena glared at Poseidon as if it was his fault.

**We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.**

**Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.**

**Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.**

"Actions picking up." Ares rubbed his hands together.

**The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.**

**The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.**

**I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"**

"Idiot," Annabeth smiled.

"Love you to Annie."

"Don't call me Annie!" Artemis smiled at the two, they reminded her of herself and Apollo.

**The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.**

**Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.**

**"Andromeda Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."**

"She's always offending the gods," Annabeth sighed.

Poseidon paled considerably at that, but Andy just smiled.

**"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.**

**She growled.**

"Who wouldn't?" Hermes asks.

**Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.**

**I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.**

**The Furies hesitated.**

**Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.**

**"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."**

**"Nice try," I told her.**

**"Andy, look out!" Annabeth cried.**

**Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.**

Gasps were heard through out the room.

**My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide. I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.**

**"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"**

"Of course it's hot." Hades rolled his eyes.

**The Fury I'd hilt-slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.**

**Mrs. Dodds was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.**

**"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"**

_**"Braccas meas vescimini!"**_** I yelled.**

**I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. **

**I think it meant "Eat my pants!"**

At this all of the demigods and several gods laughed.

**Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.**

**"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.**

**We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.**

**"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our—"**

_**BOOOOOM!**_

**The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.**

Zeus just looked at the floor.

**"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"**

**We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.**

"So that's it." Artemis says closing the book. "Who wants to go next?" Before anyone could answer a flash of light lit the throne room, when it died down two new people stood in it's place.


	13. Daddy's Girl

Will Solace and Rachel Elizabeth Dare were standing in the middle of the throne room. They both bowed to the gods before introducing themselves.

"Will Solace, son of Apollo." Apollo smiled at his son.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare, mortal." This caused an uproar.

"Mortals do not belong-"

"How did you get here?"

"Why are you here?"

"Do you like poetry?"

"Do you like pranks?"

"Can I give you a make over, your clothes are ghastly."

"Enough!" Zeus boomed. "What is your purpose here mortal?"

"I have a message from the Fates Lord Zeus. They say it is dangerous to have two of the same person in a single time. You must collect the younger versions so they can merge, to prevent paradoxes."

"Very well, Hermes, collect the children, including the mortal." Two more chairs appeared and Will and Rachel both sat.

Everyone waited quietly, all of them wondering the same thing- what do they mean by merge? When Hermes finally returned he had a bunch of toddlers and a ten year old Nico with him. They all looked around scared. Then the three year old Andy surprised them all by yelling "Daddy!" And running to Poseidon. He picked up the small girl.

"I visit her sometimes, while Sally sleeps." He answered the unasked question.

"That's against the rules!" Zeus boomed, Poseidon just rolled his eyes.

"That's why I remembered you." Poseidon smiled at the eighteen year old Andy.

"Daddy, what go on?"

"Fear not my princess. No one will harm you." He kissed her forehead, wrapping her in his arms. All the demigods were jealous of Poseidon's obvious love for his daughter.

"How are they supposed to merge."

"By touch." Rachel answered Athena.

One by one the demigods touched their counterparts. Thals went first, when she touched her toddler self the seventeen year old huntress disappeared leaving only the toddler standing there looking scared. Shocking everyone, she ran to Hera and hid behind her dress. Nico went next, He touched his ten year old hand, and the ten year old disappeared. Will was next, the toddler vanished when he grabbed his hand. The same happened with Annabeth and Rachel. Clarisse met the same fate as Thals, the only two that turned into their younger selves. Everyone was looking expectantly at Poseidon and Andy. The toddler whimpered.

"We all know what will happen when Andy touches her, it can wait until she falls asleep."

"Brother." Zeus warned.

"That is how it will happen brother, in less you would like to try and take her from me." His eyes flashed dangerously. No one questioned him again.

"Hermes, take the toddlers back to their mothers."

"Wait!" Andy, and Annabeth yelled. They stood and hugged the small children, whispering their goodbyes. When Hermes returned Zeus said they should continue the story. Demeter offered to read. All the while toddler Andy was playing with her father's beard and whispering in his ear, causing him to laugh. Andy smiled at the touching scene.

"**We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium," **Demeter read

**In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there, **

"She likes us," Apollo smiled. "Thanks Ariel."

**because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.**

"Maybe not." Apollo frowned.

**For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck;** **when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.**

Poseidon and Athena glared at Zeus.

**So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.**

"I should clean that river."

"Yes you should." Andy wrinkled her nose.

"Daddy clean!"

"Yes princess."

**Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror.**

**"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."**

**I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."**

**"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."**

**"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"**

"Are you seriously blaming her for saving you?" Hermes asked.

Annabeth blushed.

**"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"**

**"You didn't need to protect me, Andy. I would've been fine."**

**"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."**

"Nice comparison," Apollo laughed.

**"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.**

**Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans ... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."**

**We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.**

**After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."**

**"We're a team, right?"**

**She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died ... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."**

"I didn't mean it like that." Annabeth said and Andy smiled at her.

**The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.**

**"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.**

**"No ... only short field trips. My dad—"**

**"The history professor."**

**"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. **

Athena frowned. "You and your father were having problems?" Annabeth sighed.

"We're fine now, or we were, but before we didn't get along well. Things changed."

**I mean, Camp Half-Blood **_**is **_**my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her.**

**"At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."**

**If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.**

**"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.**

"Thanks Seaweed brain."

"Anytime wise girl."

"Is this book about all of Andy's adventures?" Will asked sitting forward interested. Apollo scowled at his sons interest, unsure why it bothered him.

"This book is about my first year at camp only. We're assuming when we finish a book about my second year will appear." Andy explained.

**"You think so?"**

**"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."**

"Anybody who can ride a Fury is okay by me to." Hermes said winking at a blushing Annabeth.

**I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.**

**"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you ... Something funny back on the bus ..."**

**Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill **_**toot-toot-toot, **_**like the sound of an owl being tortured.**

Athena scowled. "It better not be!"

**"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.**

**"If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"**

**He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.**

"Apollo, please teach my satyrs to play."

"I may be a god D but I doubt even divine intervention will help that one."

**Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.**

**Add to the list of superpowers I did **_**not **_**have: infrared vision.**

"Daddy, Ariel sleepy." The toddler rubbed her eyes, causing a half the room to 'Aww.'

"Rest your eyes sweetheart." He petted her head as she curled up to his chest, wrapping her tiny fingers in his beard, and resting her head in the crook of his neck.

"Your a good father." Hestia smiled. The demigods were almost green with envy including Andy.

**After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food.**

**I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This girl needed a double cheeseburger.**

**We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.**

**It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. **

"Hmm, I wonder if any of those statues are automation's." Hephaestus wondered aloud.

**The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.**

**To me, it looked like: **_**ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.**_

**"What the heck does that say?" I asked.**

**"I don't know," Annabeth said.**

**She loved reading so much; I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.**

"All she does is read." Nico said smirking at Annabeth.

**Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."**

**Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.**

**I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.**

**"Hey ..." Grover warned.**

_We should have listened. _Andy thought.

**"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."**

**"Snack bar," I said wistfully.**

**"Snack bar," she agreed.**

**"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."**

"Andy is, me not so much," Annabeth said smiling.

**We ignored him.**

**The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.**

_**"Bla-ha-ha!" **_**he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"**

Athena frowned. _Who would sculpt a satyr?_

**We stopped at the warehouse door.**

**"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."**

**"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him.**

**"All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"**

**"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."**

**"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.**

"Those aren't meat." Apollo pointed out.

**"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are ... looking at me."**

_Looking at him? _Poseidon thought while playing with his daughters hair.

**Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman—at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.**

"Well I was right she was beautiful once."

**Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"**

**"They're ... um ..." Annabeth started to say.**

**"We're orphans," I said.**

"Nice," Hermes sarcastically said, shaking his head.

**"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"**

**"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan.**

"Circus caravan!" Apollo, Hermes, and Nico all laughed. Andy bushed ruby red.

**The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"**

"Ringmaster." Hermes wiped a tear from his eye.

**"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."**

**We thanked her and went inside.**

**Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"**

**"Always have a strategy, right?"**

**"Your head is full of kelp."**

**The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But mostly, I was thinking about food.**

**Go ahead, call me an idiot **

"You're an idiot," Almost everyone said.

**for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry,** **but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. **

**Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair—it made everything else go away. I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.**

"She's defiantly a monster," Artemis said.

**All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.**

**"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.**

**"Awesome," I said.**

**"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."**

**Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."**

**"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.**

**Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done some thing wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.**

"Something was wrong," Annabeth glared.

**"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.**

Athena frowned in thought, and then she gasped.

"Don't ruin the story mom."

**Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.**

**I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.**

"She takes after you brother." Zeus joked.

**Annabeth slurped her shake.**

**Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.**

**"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.**

"Hissing noise?" Everyone asked.

**I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.**

**"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."**

**"I take vitamins. For my ears."**

**"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."**

**Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.**

**"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.**

**"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."**

**"A lot of business on this road?"**

**"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."**

"So much she keeps them all." Andy sighed thinking of all those poor people.

**My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues.**

**But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.**

**"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."**

**"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.**

**"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.**

Hestia's eyes pop open in realization.

**Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"**

"Yes, think daughter. You are in danger."

**"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."**

"Faded…" Poseidon muttered. Then he winced figuring it out as well.

**I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her.**

**My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy. Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?**

**"Andy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."**

**She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.**

Everyone was listening closely, knowing that something was about to happen.

**"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."**

Athena growled.

**She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.**

**"We really should go."**

**"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"**

**I didn't want to leave. I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.**

"She's being enchanted." Aphrodite says frowning. "Is it some sort of charm speak?"

**"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"**

**"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.**

**"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set.** **Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."**

**Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Andy—"**

**"Sure we can," I said.**

Everyone groaned.

**I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"**

"Yeah Andy whats the harm?"

"Oh get over it, I said I was sorry years ago." Andy huffed.

**"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."**

**I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.**

**Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young man in the middle, I think, and the two young ladies on either side."**

**"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.**

Everyone who didn't already know is trying to figure out what was happening.

**"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"**

**"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.**

**Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"**

**Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."**

**"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."**

**She still had no camera in her hands.**

**"Andy—" Annabeth said.**

**Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth, but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.**

**"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."**

"MEDUSA!" Apollo shouts and everyone who didn't know gasped.

**"Andy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.**

"Get out of there." Hermes demanded.

**"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"**

**"That **_**is **_**Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.**

Dionysus actually looked angry hearing that.

**"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.**

**I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.**

**I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.**

**Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.**

"Ew." Aphrodite shrieked.

**I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"**

"Thank you," Poseidon smiled at her.

Annabeth blushed.

**More rasping—the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from ... from about where Aunty Em's head would be.**

**"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, **_**"Maia!" **_**to kick-start his flying sneakers.**

Hermes started flying above his throne. "Maia." He sighed and he went back down removing the shoes.

**I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.**

**"Such a pity to destroy a beautiful young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Andy. All you have to do is look up."**

"No!" Poseidon yelled waking the sleeping child in his arms.

"Daddy?"

"I'm sorry princess, go back to sleep."

**I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens— a gazing ball. I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.**

**Aunty Em.**

**Aunty "M."**

**How could I have been so stupid?**

**How did Medusa die in the myth?**

**But I couldn't think. Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by Perseus. She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.**

"She wont, you look to much like me. She'll want you perfectly intact." Poseidon whispered.

**"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Andy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."**

"She deserved it." Athena said through gritted teeth.

**"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, some where in the statuary. "Run, Andy!"**

**"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the her, Andy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear, you need not suffer."**

**"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.**

**"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Andy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. **

"Do not give up hope." Hestia whispered.

**You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."**

**"Andy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"**

**I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.**

**"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"**

**That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me.**

**I dove to one side.**

_**Thwack!**_

**At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.**

**"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"**

**"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.**

**I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.**

_**Ker-whack!**_

**"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spit ting.**

**Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Andy!"**

"You probably scared her." Apollo frowned, not sure why the thought bothered him.

"Yeah Annabeth you could've warned her." Will sounded annoyed. Again Apollo scowled.

**I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"**

"See!" Father and son said together.

**Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. 'You have to cut her head off."**

**"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."**

**"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You—you've got a chance."**

**"What? I can't—"**

**"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"**

**She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.**

"Way to play on her need to save or help people." Nico said disapprovingly.

**Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"**

"Speak English!" Hermes frowned.

**"Would you speak English?"**

"She is." Athena sighed.

**"I **_**am!" **_**She tossed me the glass ball.**

**"Just look at her in the glass. **_**Never **_**look at her directly."**

**"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"**

_**"Roooaaarrr!"**_

"Or not," Hermes laughed.

**"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.**

**"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."**

**I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.**

**I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.**

**I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.**

**Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"**

**Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"**

**I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.**

**But she let me approach—twenty feet, ten feet.**

"What is she doing?" Athena asked.

**I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really **_**that **_**ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.**

"She really is hideous." Athena smiled proudly.

**"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Andy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."**

**I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass—the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.**

**From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Andy, don't listen to her!"**

**Medusa cackled. "Too late."**

**She lunged at me with her talons.**

Everyone gasped…

**I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening **_**shlock!,**_** then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern—the sound of a monster disintegrating.**

**Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look. I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.**

"My daughter killed Medusa." Poseidon sounded proud, making Andy smile.

**"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."**

**Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."**

**Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.**

"Gross!" Aphrodite squealed.

**"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.**

**"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger. "Why didn't ... why didn't the head evaporate?"**

**"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."**

**Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.**

**"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."**

**He managed a bashful grin. "That really was **_**not **_**fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? **_**Not **_**fun."**

"Really goat boy?" Annabeth sighed.

**He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the ware house.**

**We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.**

**Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"**

Athena looked offended and glared at Andy. "You have your father to blame."

**Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girl friend. **

**They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."**

"She does look a lot like Poseidon." Hestia studied her face.

**My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's **_**my **_**fault we met Medusa."**

**Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"**

**"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."**

**"You're insufferable."**

**"You're—"**

"You fight like sisters." Artemis said smiling.

"We are as good as sisters." They answered at the same time, and laughed. Poseidon and Athena both looked shocked that two of their children could be so close.

**"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even **_**get **_**migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"**

**I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!**

**I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom, but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp. At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.**

**What had Medusa said?**

_**Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.  
**_**I couldn't help but wonder if it was true.**

"Don't listen to her Andy." Poseidon pleaded with his daughter in a voice none of the gods ever heard him use before.

**I got up. "I'll be back."**

**"Andy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you—"**

**I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. **

Everyone looked at Hades. "I haven't ordered anything yet."

**According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.**

**In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.**

"What is she doing?" Hermes asked.

**I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:**

_**The Gods**_

_**MountOlympus**_

_**600th Floor,**_

_**EmpireState Building**_

_**New York, NY**_

_**With best wishes,**_

_**ANDY JACKSON**_

Most gods look shocked while Zeus looks out raged. "Why you little-"

**"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."**

**I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a **_**pop!**_

**"I **_**am **_**impertinent," I said.**

"Well, at least she admits it." Hermes joked.

"She's just like her father." Zeus grumbled.

"Thank you uncle." Andy smiled.

**I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.**

**She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods. "Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."**


	14. The Pit

"**We Get Advice from a Poodle,"** Hermes reads.

"A poodle?" Athena asked.

"That's what it says."

**We were pretty miserable that night.**

**We camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties.**

"Mortals have no appreciation for agriculture." Demeter grumbled.

**The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.**

**We'd taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but we didn't dare light a fire to dry our damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. We didn't want to attract anything else.**

"I wish I knew then i could will myself dry." Andy said sounding annoyed.

**We decided to sleep in shifts. I volunteered to take first watch.**

**Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground.**

"I do not snore," Annabeth huffed in annoyance.

"Yes you do." Andy said, and the demigods laughed.

**Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, put his back to the trunk, and stared at the night sky.**

**"Go ahead and sleep," I told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."**

**He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Andy."**

**"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"**

**"No. **_**This **_**makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground. "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."**

**"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."**

Eyes rolled at that.

**He glared at me. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast ... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. **

"I'm offended, I never liter." Will said truly sounding offended.

**At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."**

**"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"**

Andy laughed at herself.

**"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"**

**A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rain water, things that might've once been in these woods. Suddenly I was nostalgic for something I'd never known.**

"Pan! That had to be him!" Hermes looked beyond happy. Andy dreaded Hermes hearing about his death.

**"Tell me about the search," I said.**

**Grover looked at me cautiously, as if he were afraid I was just making fun.**

"I would never make fun of a friend." Andy said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

**"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told me. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."**

**"And you want to be a searcher."**

**"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand ... the statue you saw back there—"**

**"Oh, right, sorry."**

**Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."**

"Wait, the first?" Nico asked shocked.

**"Hang on—**_**the first?"**_

**Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."**

**"Not once in two thousand years?"**

**"No."**

**"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"**

**"None."**

**"But you still want to go," I said, amazed. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"**

**"I have to believe that, Andy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."**

**I stared at the orange haze of the sky and tried to understand how Grover could pursue a dream that seemed so hopeless. Then again, was I any better?**

Everyone looked down, remembering what happened to Sally.

**"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" I asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"**

**"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me—"**

**"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."**

Annabeth huffed.

**"Don't be so hard on her, Andy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.**

"For what?" Nico asked.

"You'll see," Annabeth says.

**"What do you mean?" I asked. "Forgave you for what?"**

**Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.**

**"Wait a minute," I said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't ... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong—"**

**"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if I pressed him. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Some thing isn't what it seems."**

**"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunder bolt that Hades took."**

"There's no proof that I took it." Hades said.

"Or that you didn't." Zeus added.

"Except the fact that we're reading my life story and it says I didn't. In less of course you're calling the Fates liars uncle." Andy said annoyed with him.

"Watch how you speak to me." His eyes narrowed.

"Then watch who your calling a thief." Andy shot back. Hermes started reading again to avoid an argument. He had no doubt this little spit fire daughter of Poseidon would go toe to toe with the king of the gods without flinching.

**"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur—The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy ... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."**

**"They seemed plenty aggressive to me."**

"They can be much worse." Hades and Nico said at the same time.

**Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"**

**"Asking about me," I said.**

**"Maybe ... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is **_**it**_**?' They seemed to be asking about an object."**

"They must be looking for the bolt." Athena said, almost to herself.

"Yeah but that means Hades didn't take it," Ares said.

"Then who has it?" Apollo asked. No one answered.

**"That doesn't make sense."**

**"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." He looked at me like he was hoping for answers, but I didn't have any.**

**I thought about what Medusa had said: I was being used by the gods. What lay ahead of me was worse than petrification. "I haven't been straight with you," I told Grover. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld so I could bring back my mother."**

"We knew that." Annabeth said.

**Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Andy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"**

**"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."**

Poseidon looked hurt and stared at the little girl in his arms.

**Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Andy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. **

Annabeth smiled at that.

**I'm not as brave as you. **

**But I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."**

Poseidon asked. "is that true?"

"It's the demigod curse, we all crave approval and affection from our godly parent. We'll do anything to get it, even risk our lives. Tho most hide that fact behind anger." The gods looked ashamed and the demigods looked away, not one could contradict what she said. Hermes cleared his throat awkwardly.

**"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."**

Poseidon closed his eyes for a moment.

"Dad, I don't feel that way anymore. I never really did to begin with." He nodded.

**Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Andy. Whatever."**

**"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."**

"Are you serious princess? You killed all three furies, one twice, you killed the Minotaur, and medusa." Andy blushed at Apollo's shocked praise.

"You sure are brave." Ares said. "I'll give you that."

**Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about **_**I**_** take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."**

**I wanted to protest, but he started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and I turned away, my eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, I was asleep.**

**In my dreams, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit.**

The gods all look confused.

**Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead.**

"Tartarus," Hades spoke quietly.

**They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.**

**Looking down made me dizzy.**

**The pit yawned so wide and was so completely black, I knew it must be bottomless. Yet I had a feeling that something was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil.**

"Impossible," Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades all whisper, but everyone heard.

Olympus was completely quiet.

"This is a lot bigger than your master bolt brother."

_**The little princess, **_**an amused voice echoed far down in the darkness. **_**Too weak, too young, but perhaps you will do.**_

**The voice felt ancient—cold and heavy. It wrapped around me like sheets of lead.**

Everyone in the throne room shivered even the gods.

_**They have misled you, **_**it said. **_**Barter with me. I will give you what you want.**_

**A shimmering image hovered over the void: my mother, frozen at the moment she'd dissolved in a shower of gold. Her face was distorted with pain, as if the Minotaur were still squeezing her neck. Her eyes looked directly at me, pleading: **_**Go!**_

"It must be Hades then, right?" Apollo asked a little frantically.

**I tried to cry out, but my voice wouldn't work.**

**Cold laughter echoed from the chasm.**

**An invisible force pulled me forward. It would drag me into the pit unless I stood firm.**

_**Help me rise. **_**The voice became hungrier. **_**Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods! I will make you a queen!**_

"Rise?" Hephaestus says.

"I'm not sure," Hades said. "Just read."

**The spirits of the dead whispered around me, **_**No! Wake!**_

"If it was Hades the dead wouldn't be helping her." Athena muttered, everyone herd.

**The image of my mother began to fade. The thing in the pit tightened its unseen grip around me.**

**I realized it wasn't interested in pulling me in. It was using me to pull itself **_**out.**_

The gods each had a scared look on their faces. No one wanted to believe it.

_**Good, **_**it murmured. **_**Good.**_

_**Wake! **_**the dead whispered. **_**Wake!**_

**Someone was shaking me.**

**My eyes opened, and it was daylight.**

**"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."**

**I was trembling from the dream. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster around my chest.**

**"How long was I asleep?"**

**"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed me a bag of nacho-flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."**

"The poodle?" Nico asked.

**My eyes had trouble focusing.**

**Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.**

"It was pink!" Aphrodite shrieks. "I had a pink poodle once! It made a mess in my hand bag, it went back to New York the hard way." The demigods flinched

"You threw a poodle off Olympus?" Hera asked scandalized.

'Your one to talk you thew your own child off Olympus." Hephaestus spat at her. Hera looked away guiltily.

**No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.**

**The poodle yapped at me suspiciously. Grover said, "No, she's not."**

**I blinked. "Are you ... talking to that thing?"**

**The poodle growled.**

**"This **_**thing**_**," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."**

**"You can talk to animals?"**

**Grover ignored the question. "Andy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Andy."**

**I stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing on me, but she looked deadly serious.**

**"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," I said. "Forget it."**

**"Andy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."**

**The poodle growled.**

**I said hello to the poodle.**

Everyone laughed and Andy blushed.

**Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family,** **but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.**

**"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" I asked.**

**"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."**

**"Of course," I said. "Silly me."**

Everyone laughed at Andy's remark.

**"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."**

**I thought about my dream—the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and my mother's face, shimmering as it dissolved into gold. All that might be waiting for me in the West.**

**"Not another bus," I said warily.**

**"No," Annabeth agreed.**

**She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west bound train leaves at noon."**

"That's it for the chapter. Who wants to read next?" Hermes asked.

"I will," Apollo reached for the book.

"We'll read one more chapter then have dinner." Hestia smiled.

"Wait! First Andromeda must merge with her younger self." Zeus looked at Poseidon, who tightened his arms around the sleeping girl. "You said when she is asleep brother, she has been asleep for awhile." Poseidon sighed. Andy knew it was boarder line ridiculous but she envied the sleeping child. She stood and walked over to her father, she gave him a sympathetic look and touched her forehead. The little girl vanished leaving her fathers arms empty.

**I do not own PJATO**


	15. Not a Maiden

"**I Plunge to my Death," **Apollo read.

Poseidon shifted in his throne.

**We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.**

**We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax.**

"Good," Athena said. "You never should while on a quest."

**I felt that we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.**

**I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The **_**Trenton Register-News **_**showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.**

**The picture's caption read:**

_**Thirteen-year-old Andy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of her mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers.**_

"You're famous! You're all over the news." Hermes sounded proud.

_**The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the girl may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. Her stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to her capture.**_

**"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.**

"I wasn't sure." Annabeth admited.

**The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or looking out the windows.**

**Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch.**

**The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.**

**Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.**

"The Nemean lion." Artemis sounded impressed.

"Those things are hard to kill, but did you know the fur is bullet proof?" Every one looked at her surprised.

"You fought the Nemean lion too?!" Poseidon asked.

"Not in this book, and not alone."

**Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. **

"That was an awful ride." Annabeth nods at Andy.

**Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. **

**Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.**

"Fake feet." Hermes laughed.

**"So," Annabeth asked me, once **_**we'd **_**gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"**

The gods looked worried again, they studied Andy's face but she gave nothing away.

**I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit.**

**But it bothered me so much I finally told her.**

**Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."**

""If the voice wasn't Hades, then are darkest fears are coming true."

"Enough Athena," Zeus snaps. "We don't know that for sure."

"If we delay then he will have the upper hand. We must plan." Athena says, her voice slightly rising.

"I said enough. We will speak of this no more until we have all the facts. Need I remind you Athena that these events are taking place ten years in the future, we can wait a few days."

"I hope you didn't just doom us all." Athena said before sitting back.

**"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"**

**"I guess ... if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"**

**I shook my head, wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told me, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.**

_**Where is it? Where?**_

**Maybe Grover sensed my emotions. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.**

**Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Andy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy.**

"I am not any of those things, well maybe greedy..."

"Sorry lord Hades." Annabeth muttered shyly.

**I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time—"**

**"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"**

**Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."**

**"What would you do if it was your dad?"**

**"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."**

"Annabeth!" Athena scolded.

"That's a terrible thing to say, he's still your father. No matter your differences." Hera said

"Things were different then." Annabeth says looking ashamed. "I'd save him now."

**"You're not serious?"**

**Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on me. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Andy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."**

**"But how ... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital..."**

Andy blushed.

**"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."**

"I'm sorry Annabeth." Athena said, looking at her daughter who won't make eye contact with anyone. Andy took her hand and squeezed.

**I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but I didn't know how.**

**"My mom married a really awful guy," I told her.** **"Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."**

Annabeth smiled but shook her head.

**Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.**

**"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife—my stepmom—treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened—you know, something with monsters—they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."**

Athena looked close to tears hearing this happened to her daughter.

**"How old were you?"**

**"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."**

"You were so young." Hera said sadly.

"Age doesn't matter with half-bloods. Monster's want us dead because were the children of the gods. And were unprotected before camp. Many half-bloods are killed in the cradle."

The gods all look saddened by this. It was their fault their children suffered, and they did nothing to protect them.

**"But ... you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."**

**"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. **

**I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."**

**I wanted to ask what happened, but Annabeth seemed lost in sad memories. So I listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by.**

**Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.**

"It's wonderful," Annabeth said with a gleam in her eyes.

"For you it was maybe." Andy replied.

**"I want to do that," she sighed.**

**"What?" I asked.**

**"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Andy?"**

**"Only in pictures."**

**"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."**

Athena smiled.

**I laughed. "You? An architect?"**

Annabeth huffed at Andy glaring.

**I don't know why, but I found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.**

"I suppose that does make sense." Annabeth sighed.

**Her cheeks flushed. **

**"Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."**

Poseidon scowled.

"I'm sorry lord Poseidon." Annabeth said.

**I watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below.**

**"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."**

**"Can't we work together a little?" I pleaded not believing she was still on that. Who cares if our parents don't get along. I've never even met Poseidon why should I carry the burden of his past actions? And I'm sure the blame wasn't all his. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"**

Athena, Annabeth, and Poseidon all looked sheepish.

**Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess ... the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."**

**"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"**

**We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.**

**"I suppose," she said at last.**

"You act like it's such a hardship for you." Andy said bitterly.

"I'm sorry Andy, I was wrong." Andy still didn't look at her, but her face softened if only slightly.

**We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.**

**Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."**

**"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."**

**"Sightseeing?"**

**"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"**

**Grover and I exchanged looks.**

**I wanted to say no, but I figured that if Annabeth was going, we couldn't very well let her go alone.**

"That makes me feel worse for what happened." Annabeth muttered.

"What did happen?" Ares asked getting excited.

"I wasn't there. But it's coming up in a second."

**Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."**

"Well, there was a snack bar." Andy said, with false cheer.

**The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me jelly beans, so I was okay.**

**I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.**

**He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."**

"He should trust his nose." Artemis said.

**But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.**

**"Guys," I said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"**

**Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"**

**"Well, Hade—"**

**Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place... You mean, our friend downstairs?"**

Apollo and Hermes snorted.

**"Um, right," I said. "Our friend **_**way **_**downstairs. **

Hades smirked.

**Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"**

**"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."**

**"He was there?" I asked.**

**She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus—the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, **

"Of course it is."

**if what I've heard is true..."**

**"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"**

**"But then ... how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" I asked.**

"Because I have better things to do. Paranoid much niece?"

"I have reason to be uncle."

**Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.**

**"We don't," Grover said.**

**"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," I said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"**

**I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts.**

"ADHD is awful." Annabeth and Andy said at the same time.

**We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.**

**We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it.**

**"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.**

**She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.**

**"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."**

"Now that how you lie! You should come pranking with me and Apollo sometime." Hermes said, then he winked at Annabeth who blushed scarlet and turned away.

**"Oh, the poor darlings."**

**The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.**

**I said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"**

**"No," the lady told me.**

**She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.**

**At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quick. Before Zeus zapped me.**

Zeus laughed smugly.

**Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor.**

**She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.**

**I steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for me.**

**The park ranger said, "Next car, miss."**

**"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."**

**But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."**

"Famous last words." Apollo smiled, Andy sighed a little despite herself and nodded.

**Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.**

**Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.**

**I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.**

"Forked tongue?" Several said.

**Wait a minute.**

**Forked tongue?**

**Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.**

"I'd kick it," Ares smiled.

**"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."**

**"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"**

**His parents pulled him back.**

**The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.**

**"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."**

**Ice started forming in my stomach. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"**

"Not good." Apollo decided.

_**"Chimera, **_**dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."**

**She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were side ways slits, like a reptile's.**

**The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.**

**The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.**

**The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA—RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS—IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS—EXT. 954.**

Hermes and Apollo smile at each other thinking of prank calling Tartarus.

**I realized I hadn't even uncapped my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.**

**The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Andy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"**

"You sent her after my daughter!" Poseidon roared.

"I haven't done it yet."

"And you never will."

**I stared at her. All I could think to say was: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"**

"She's not going to like that." Athena said.

**She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Andy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"**

**The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.**

**I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.**

**I couldn't let them get hurt. **

Everyone smiled at Andy wanting to protect the mortals.

"She's a true hero." Artemis sighed, "you should've been a Hunter. If you were still a maiden I would offer you to join."

"You're not a maiden?!" Annabeth screeched.

"Shut up Annabeth." Andy and Poseidon were both red faced.

"But who? When?"

"Please shut up."

"Was it a mortal?"

"No! Now be quiet!" Andy's face was getting redder and redder.

"A demigod? Which one?!"

"Not exactly." Andy was now studying the floor, hoping it would open up and swallow her whole, anything would be better than this.

"Oh my gods! You slept with a god!" Will looked sick.

"WHAT!" Poseidon roared.

"Dad please!"

"It had to be either Hermes or Apollo!" Both gods smiled suggestively at Andy wiggling their eyebrows.

"Shut up Annabeth! For the love of the gods please, please shut up!" Annabeth huffed.

"Fine but we will be talking about this later. I can't believe you never told me!"

"Yes, yes fine. Whatever you want just shut up." Apollo cleared his throat trying not to laugh.

**I uncapped my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.**

**Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.**

**I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eye brows.**

"You would look strange with out eyebrows." Hermes said thoughtfully but Andy still wouldn't look u from the floor.

**Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.**

**Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument.**

**Riptide was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.**

**That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion's mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf.**

"NO!" Poseidon yelled, everyone was shocked.

**My whole leg was on fire. I tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around my ankles and pulled me off balance, and my blade flew out of my hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.**

**I managed to get to my feet, but I knew I had lost. I was weaponless. I could feel deadly poison racing up to my chest. I remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to me, but there was no pen in my pocket. Maybe it had fallen too far away. Maybe it only returned when it was in pen form. I didn't know, and I wasn't going to live long enough to figure it out.**

**I backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"**

"She is a perfect hero!" All the demigods demand.

**The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish me off now that I was beaten.**

**I glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. I had to protect these people. I couldn't just ... die.**

"Heart of a true hero," Hestia smiled.

**I tried to think, but my whole body was on fire. My head felt dizzy. I had no sword. I was facing a massive, fire-breathing monster and its mother. And I was scared.**

Ares was about to make fun of her but then he stopped himself. The girl was thirteen with no weapon, almost no training, and still trying to protect the mortals.

**There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.**

**If I died, would the monsters go away? Would they leave the humans alone?**

"Don't think like that," Annabeth says sadly to her friend.

**"If you are the daughter of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Andy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline."**

**Yeah, right, I thought. I'd read somewhere that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid asphalt. From here, I'd splatter on impact.**

"It's true." Athena whispered.

**The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast.**

**"You have no faith," Echidna told me. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."**

**She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. Nobody could save me, not even the gods.**

"I could," Apollo says. "I would have if I had known." Andy looked up and gave him a beautiful smile. He sucked in a breath.

"I know, you've saved me before." Poseidon and Annabeth both narrowed their eyes.

**I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father's smile when I was a baby. He must have seen me. He must have visited me when I was small.**

**I remembered the swirling green trident that had appeared above my head the night of capture the flag, when Poseidon had claimed me as his child.**

**But this wasn't the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead center of the USA. There was no Sea God here.**

**"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward my face.**

**"Father, help me," I prayed.**

"Please, just jump," Poseidon encouraged.

"She'll die," Athena says.

**I turned and jumped. My clothes on fire, poison coursing through my veins, I plummeted toward the river.**

Apollo closed the book. "That's the chapter. Who would like to read next?"

"I will." Poseidon snatched the book.


	16. Fire Under Water

"**I Become a Know Fugitive," **Poseidon read.

**I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, etcetera.**

**The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!**

"Sounds about right." Nico and Will both said.

**The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.**

**And then: **_**Flaaa-boooom!**_

**A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.**

**But my impact with the water hadn't hurt.**

"What would happen with a child of Hades?"

"I'm not sure." Hades says.

"Maybe we should throw you off a building and find out." Zeus laughed.

"Don't you dare." Hades growled at him.

"Why not?"

"He is my son, and you will not touch him!" Nico looked surprised at his father defending him, something Hades didn't miss.

**I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me.**

**At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. **

"Which is always good," Will said.

**I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.**

Poseidon looked relieved.

**Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.**

**I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.**

**No way, I thought.**

**I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.**

"That is awesome." Ares, Apollo, Hermes, will, and Nico all beamed.

**I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry.**

**I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.**

**But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.**

"You'd think that was the first thing she noticed." Athena snorted.

**I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like ... well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: ****_And_**_**y, what do you say?**_

**"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings. "Thank you ... Father."**

"You're welcome daughter." Poseidon smiled at Andy. She gave him a huge smile in return.

**No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.**

**Why had Poseidon saved me? **

"You are my daughter and I love you." Poseidon frowned at the question.

"Brother, you do realize you're talking to a book right?" Zeus points out.

"I love you to dad." Andy said embarrassed, that was the first time he ever said he loved her, and he said it to a book. But that didn't matter to her, she was close to tears she was so happy. It was the demigod curse.

**The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance.**

Hestia shook her head. "You should not be so hard on yourself young one."

**Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.**

_**Fump-fump-fump.**_** A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.**

Demeter looked to Poseidon. "You should clean u the rivers more often." Andy nodded her agreement.

**There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.**

**I heard that woman's voice again: And**_**y, take the sword. Your father believes in you. **_**This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.**

**"Where are you?" I called aloud.**

**Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.**

**A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"**

Everyone looked down at that.

_**No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hope less as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.**_

**"What?"**

_**It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Andy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.**_

"You summoned her?" Zeus asked annoyed.

"Looks that way." Poseidon replied.

**"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"**

**There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.**

_**I cannot stay, brave one, **_**the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. **_**You must go to Santa Monica! And, Andy, do not trust the gifts...**_

**Her voice faded.**

**"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"**

**She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.**

**I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.**

_**Your father believes in you, **_**she had said.**

**She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.**

"Come here princess."

Poseidon held out his hand for his daughter. She stood and walked over to him unsure. He picked her up and held her in his arms like he did with the three year old her. She should've felt silly, she was eighteen, she shouldn't be curled up in her dads lap. But she just held on tighter trying not to let the tears in her eyes fall. The demigods felt their jealousy burn inside them.

"Never doubt that I am proud of you. We are not even through the first book, and I am already very proud." Two tears made their way down her cheeks. This surprised the demigods, they had never seen her cry. Poseidon brushed them away with his thumbs, and hugged her tighter. He cleared his throat and continued to read while Andy rested her head on his shoulder.

**I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.**

**I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.**

**Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.**

**I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.**

A couple stomachs grumble at the mention of McDonald's.

"Great idea," Apollo smiled. He snapped his fingers and a Double Cheeseburger appeared on his lap.

"Do you have any idea how many calories are in there!" Aphrodite shrieked Apollo shrugged.

**A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.**

**A little girl said, "Mama! That girl walked out of the river."**

**"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.**

**"But she's dry!"**

**"That's nice, dear."**

"Stupid mortals." Artemis shook her head.

**A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."**

_**Survivors.**_** I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.**

Hestia smiled. "She does not care about herself, only of his friends, and the mortals."

**I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.**

**"... an adolescent girl," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent girl going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities …"**

**I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.**

**I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Annn-dy!"**

**I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug—or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"**

"Actually it would have been the easy way." Hades said reasonably.

**Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me.**

**"We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"**

**"I sort of fell."**

**"Andy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"**

"That's high." Nico whistled sitting back.

**Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"**

**"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."**

**"I'm not crazy! This girl jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There she is! That's the girl!"**

**I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.**

**"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"**

**I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.**

**"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."**

"Well you could, but it wouldn't end to well." Zeus said to Andy, but when he looked over he found her asleep. She looked much like the three year old, curled up in his brothers arms. It was quite the sight especially when Poseidon looked down at her, almost reverently.

**Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Andy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the girl who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young lady wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. **_**And **_**the girl is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Andy Jackson."**

**We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.**

**"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"**

**Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station with out getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.**

"That's it for the chapter."

"Dinner time for the demigods."

"I'll read after that." Hephaestus said. All the goddesses left the room with the demigods.

"Are you just going to let her sleep on you brother?" Hades asked amused.

"Indeed I am." Poseidon smiled.

"She didn't sleep last night, she may not be mortal anymore, but she is not a full goddess either. She still needs rest." Apollo smiled at the sleeping girl.

"She can stay like this as long as she wants." They could all plainly see the love in his eyes, and it made most of them feel guilty for not being better fathers.


	17. Apollo's Hero

"**A God Buys us Cheeseburgers," **Hephaestus' deep voice boomed.

"What god would do that?" Ares asks.

**The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious.**

"She's right. We stunk," Annabeth laughed looking at her sleeping friend. "Does anyone have a camera?" Apollo snapped his fingers and a camera dropped into her lap. "Lord Poseidon, may I take your picture. I would like to give it to Andy as a late birthday gift." He scowled but nodded.

**"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."**

**"We can't use phones, right?"**

**"I'm not talking about phones."**

**We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.**

"Does she compare everything to water?" Athena asked Annabeth.

"Yes, I don't even think she notices."

"That makes sense. She is connected to the sea, her mind will always go back to it." Poseidon said proudly.

"That also explains how she fell asleep, the power from your throne brother, it must calm her." Zeus remarked. "Most people wouldn't feel safe enough to fall asleep in front of the Olympian council."

"She doesn't have to fear such things. I would destroy anyone who tried to harm her."

"Does she know that?" Hades raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, she does." Annabeth answered with no trace of doubt in her voice.

**Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.**

"Doughnuts," Apollo smiled.

**"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.**

**"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"**

**"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."**

**I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.**

**"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."**

Many eyes rolled at that sentence, and a few snickers were heard.

"Pigs." Artemis spat.

"Doesn't it make you a pig as well dear sister if you know what were laughing about?" Apollo smirked.

"No it means I've spent to long around my womanizing pig of a twin brother."

"That hurts sis, that hurts real bad." He placed his hand over his heart.

"Don't call me sis!"

**"What are you talking about?"**

**He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."**

**"Instant messaging?"**

**"**_**Iris**_**-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."**

"I had a fling with Iris for a few years, she doesn't shave her legs, but she sure knows how to show a guy a good time." Hermes smiled dreamily.

**"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"**

**Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."**

**Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.**

**Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please."**

**I handed it over.**

**She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."**

**She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.**

**"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.**

**For a moment, nothing happened.**

**Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.**

Annabeth groaned. Of course it had to be Luke that answered.

**"Luke!" I called.**

**He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.**

**"Andy!" His scarred face broke into a wide grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"**

**"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. I didn't care about my appearance much but she was making me want to do the same.**

**"We thought—Chiron—I mean—"**

**"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers.** **Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"**

**"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"**

"Yes, what issues?" Hermes and Athena wondered aloud.

**Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.**

**"Chiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled.**

**"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight.**

"I wasn't that bad." Annabeth huffed.

**"Grover, come on!"**

**"What?" Grover said. "But—"**

**"Give Andy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.**

**Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth.**

All of the girls look offended by that. While Apollo laughed.

**I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.**

**"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Andy. Word leaked out about the Zeus—Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how—probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound.**

Annabeth rolled her eyes, scumbag indeed.

**Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."**

"Nice my children are on my side," Zeus glared at Apollo and Ares.

"Can you blame us," Apollo smiled. "Uncle P is awesome, and Andy is gorgeous, how can we side with you when you want to harm such a magnificent creature?!"

Poseidon smiled at Zeus.

"I still have my daughter the finest strategist," Zeus smirked.

"You may," Poseidon agreed. "But I think Athena knows you're wrong. Besides I have a daughter too, and she is the finest of hero's."

They turned to Athena waiting for her to answer.

"I don't know, you're my father and he's my rival, but what Poseidon says is true tho, his daughter didn't take the bolt so you are wrong father."

"Andromeda Jackson could very well be a the thief and is just faking is innocents."

"I am getting tired of you accusing my daughter brother. She has surpassed all your demigod children, and we haven't even finished her first year at Camp. I recommend you hold your tongue. I will not tolerate much more." It got colder in the throne room, all the demigod were deathly quiet.

"You should just hope she isn't the thief, for if she is not even you will be able to save her from my wrath."

"If you touch her there will be a war the likes of which you have never seen!" Poseidon's face was murderous as he tightened his arms around his sleeping daughter.

"That's enough, no one will touch her brother calm down." Hestia leveled them with her eyes.

**I shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on my dad's side for anything.**

**In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.**

**"So what's your status?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."**

**I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn't realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.**

**"I wish I could be there," Luke told me. "We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen ... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."**

"I don't like this boy," Hades glared at Hermes.

"What other choice is there. You were here for the one day, and the bolt goes missing. Coincidence? Perhaps, we will have to wait and see."

Hades' glare hardened.

**"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly."**

**"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still ... Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible."**

"He tried to blame it on me!" Annabeth looked furious.

"That boy should keep his mouth shut instead of accusing my daughter!"

"He never say that," Hermes said calmly but his eyes betrayed his anger.

"Maybe not but he implied it."

**We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.**

**"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never ... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."**

"See." Hermes said triumphantly.

**I wondered if Annabeth would like that description.**

"Sister's good," She said. "Maybe not at this time in the book, but in the end sister was perfect." Her eyes filled with tears as she thought of their last conversation, when he asked her if she loved him.

**In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.**

**"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."**

**"Oh ... uh, yeah!" I tried not to sound like a guilty liar. "Yeah, they've come in handy."**

**"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"**

**The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.**

**"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—"**

"He did that on purpose.I can't believe him!" Annabeth yelled looking mad.

"The satyr that let my daughter die!" Zeus yelled.

"Calm down," Hera started. "I may… Dislike your demigodchildren; but I'm sure that he did not mean for her to die."

**But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. I was alone in a wet, empty car wash stall.**

**Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Andy? What did Luke say?"**

**"Not much," I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin.**

"If I have judged her correctly she will not let this new information sway her belief in her friends." Hestia said not worried in the least.

**"Come on, let's find some dinner."**

**A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner.**

**All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.**

**Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"**

**I said, "We, um, want to order dinner."**

**"You kids have money to pay for it?"**

**Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum.**

**Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger.**

**I was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.**

Everyone looked at Ares.

"I must want something from the brats." He shrugged.

**All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather—but leather that looked like ... well, Caucasian human skin.**

**The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama. **

"Damn right princess." Ares said proudly.

**He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen— handsome, I guess, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before.**

**As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"**

**The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.**

**He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"**

"Always so rude Ares." Hera shook her head at her son, who didn't look the least bit sorry.

**He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.**

**The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?**

"I have that effect on people." Ares smiled smugly.

"Yes you do make everyone want to hit you." Zeus conformed.

**He gave me a** **wickd grin. "So you're old Seaweed's girl, huh?"**

**I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe. I wanted to rip this guy's head off. "What's it to you?"**

**Annabeth's eyes flashed me a warning. "Andy, this is—"**

**The biker raised his hand.**

**"S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"**

**Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five.**

**"You're Clarisse's dad," I said.** **"Ares, god of war."**

**Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, princess. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."**

**"She was asking for it."**

**"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for—I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."**

Artemis glared at Ares. "You don't have to fight her battles to show you support her. Do you love any of your children?"

"What do you know," Ares glared. "You don't have any children. Why does it matter if I love the brats, as long as they do as their told they aint got nothing to fear."

"You're disgusting."

"And you're a prude.

Apollo pulls out his bow and aimed it at Ares. "Don't talk to my sister like that."

"What are you gonna do about it Prettyboy?"

Apollo smirked. All of a sudden Ares skin started turning red and blistering. Ares growled and snapped his fingers. The demigods got a crazy look in their eyes and all stood to attack Apollo. He grunted as the arrow his own son shot at him went into his shoulder. Andy woke hearing Apollo's pain.

She quickly took in the scene. In less than five minutes she had all three demigods on the floor unarmed, Ignoring the shocked gasps she summoned the power of the sea. A twenty foot wave shot at Ares. Locking him in a water prison. She growled at him and as she released his head, the water raised her up to eye level with him. She slowly cut his cheek open with Riptide spilling golden ichor. Ares fumed.

"Let me go princess and I might not kill you."

"If you try to harm him again, you will deeply regret it." She hissed in a deadly voice that sent shivers up even some of the gods spines.

"Well that clears up the maiden question." Hermes tried to lighten the mood.

Andy's eyes went wide as she realized what she just did. She snapped her fingers, and the water was gone. Everyone was staring at her. She covered her mouth with her hands, knowing she gave herself away, and there was nothing she could say.

"Andy?" Annabeth asked.

"I- I- I- It's not, I mean." Andy looked at the doors, Zeus must've seen this because he pointed his bolt at them and blasted them closed. She was trapped.

"The blessing of Apollo. That day at the ranch." Annabeth sounded like she was in shock.

"Apollo?! It was Apollo the biggest man whore on Olympus?!" Andy flinched.

"I don't know what your talking about Dad." She saw no other option it was lie or confess.

"Hey!" Apollo yelled offended. Andy didn't even look at him.

"You slept with my daughter!"

"I did not! Not yet anyway." Everyone closed their eyes at his foolishness. Poseidon's face went bright red with anger. He pointed his trident at his throat. Apollo looked terrified.

"Daddy please!" This shocked Poseidon enough to lower his trident and look at her. Aphrodite gasped.

"She's in love with him." Andy closed her eyes.

"Dad please let this go. The things your angry about didn't happen in this time, he had no idea." Poseidon nodded, still looking furious. Andy took her seat again not looking at anyone tho she could feel all their eyes on her. She had just outed herself, and Aphrodite didn't help at all. "Is someone going to read, or are you all just going to stare at me?" She snapped. Ares was grumbling under his breath. Hephaestus started reading again.

**The waitress came back with heaping trays of food—cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes.**

**Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.**

**She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't..."**

**Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"**

**The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.**

**"You can't do that," I told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."**

"She has a point."

"She was just some mortal." Ares shrugged.

**Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, princess? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor."**

**"What favor could I do for a god?"**

**"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little ... date with my girl friend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."**

"She's not your servant." Artemis hissed.

"She tries to fight me again she will be."

"Be careful Ares." Poseidon spat.

**"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"**

**The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.**

**"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it.**

"Try it, and I'll turn you into a goldfish and flush you." Poseidon glared at him.

**A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Andy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."**

**I wanted to smack this guy, but somehow, I knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing my anger. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.**

"Good job Andy." Aphrodite smiled feeling sorry for the girl, now that it was out in the open she could feel all her heart break, and turmoil. But Andy just nodded not looking up.

**"We're not interested," I said. "We've already got a quest."**

**Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see—blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield. "I know all about your quest, princess. When that **_**item **_**was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally. **

"Naturally," Apollo, Athena, and Artemis repeated.

**If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful ..." He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well ... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."**

" I hate you," Hades glared at Ares.

**"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"**

**"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."**

**"Thanks," I grumbled.**

**"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."**

"That's the only half decent thing you've said" Aphrodite said.

"**We're doing fine on our own."**

**"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."**

"You're using Andy's mother as a way to get her to do what you want." Aphrodite snarled.

Hera smiled at Andy's devotion to her mother.

_Why can't I have a child like that? _Hera wondered.

"So?" Ares shrugged.

"So how about I use something against you?!" Ares gulped knowing exactly what she would use against him.

**"My mom?"**

**He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."**

Ares smiled at Aphrodite who glared at him.

**"What interrupted your date?" I asked. "Something scare you off?"**

**Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.**

"You wish sweetheart, I don't get nervous. I think you spent to much time with Prettyboy here in the future, his stupidity must've rubbed off on you- when you two were rubbing together." Andy clenched her jaw.

"Uncle Zeus, Ares is the god who turned. He had the bolt." Everyone gasped.

"Andy! The Fates said-"

"I don't care Annabeth!"

"ARES!" Zeus boomed.

"She's lying!"

"I swear on the river Styx Ares had the bolt!" Zeus blasted Ares with the master bolt. Lightning flashed across the sky.

**"You're lucky you met me, princess, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am.**

**I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."**

**After that I must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone. I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth and Grover's expressions told me otherwise.**

**"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Andy. This is not good."**

**I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.**

**Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power—cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think.**

**"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."**

**"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."**

"I wouldn't let that happen," Poseidon said. Zeus was still glaring at Ares who was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

**I looked down at my cheeseburger, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing. "Why does he need us?"**

**"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."**

Ares glared but Athena agreed with her daughter.

"She's right."

"Yeah, you are kind of stupid," Aphrodite agreed, her anger at Ares growing more by the second.

**"But this water park ... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"**

**Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.**

**Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."**

**The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.**

**The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.**

**"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."**

Aphrodite frowned.

**"Andy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."**

**"Why? I thought you hated Ares."**

**"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."**

"That's not true" Aphrodite whined. The others look at her skeptically.

**"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.**

**"Who is she? Echidna?"**

Aphrodite looked insulted.

"I am sorry Lady Aphrodite, it simply never occurred to me that someone like you would be with someone like him willingly." Aphrodite nodded, agreeing with the statement.

"You didn't know I forgive you."

**"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."**

**"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."**

Andy winced, Aphrodite looked over at Hephaestus- who wasn't looking at anyone. Hera and Zeus, looked at at Ares who was smirking. The goddess of love looked away feeling guilty, ashamed, and embarrassed.

**"What's your point?" he asked.**

**"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"**

_**"Maia!" **_**Grover's shoes sprouted wings.**

Hermes was glad he took the shoes off. He looked at Apollo expecting to see a smirk, or at least a smile, but there was none. He had the concentrated look he gets when he's about to shoot his bow. Apollo had been strangely quiet since the Ares situation, Hermes noted. He couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with Andy.

Speaking of Andy- Hermes was still amazed by her skill. She took down three highly trained, powerful demigods with out breaking a sweat. Then trapped the god of war in a giant water bubble. All because he caused Apollo harm. It would be a lie to say he wasn't the smallest bit jealous it was Apollo, and not him that Andy was with in the future she came from. The girl was undeniably beautiful, powerful, and had limitless courage. Which is why he would bet she is what's causing that concentrated look on his old friends face.

**He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"**

**Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.**

Poseidon, Athena, Annabeth, and Andy all smiled.

**The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?**

"What kind of names are those?" Hades asked, but no one had a answer.

**No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.**

**We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—**

**"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."**

**"Yeah," I said. "But you can't just—"**

**"Watch me."**

"Annabeth!" Athena scolded. but said girl just shrugged.

"We needed more clothes."

"We really did." Andy admitted.

**She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.**

Hermes smiled and nodded his approval. "Remember what I said about coming along." He winked and Annabeth blushed scarlet once again.

**"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.**

**We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love.**

**I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"**

"That's up for debate," Aphrodite glared at him.

**"That's old gossip, Andy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."**

**"What about Aphrodite's husband?"**

Aphrodite looked away unable to meet anyone's eyes.

**"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The black smith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus.**

"That's a lie," Zeus said.

"He's a monster; I'd throw him off too." Ares waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't talk about my husband like that." She was seething and it surprised everyone.

**So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"**

Annabeth looked at Aphrodite trying to convey 'sorry' without actually saying it. But the Goddess of Love wasn't even paying attention to her.

**"She likes bikers."**

**"Whatever."**

**"Hephaestus knows?"**

"Of course," He grumbled quietly.

**"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like ..."**

**She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."**

**In front of us was an empty pool. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.**

**Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!**

**Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."**

**Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares' shield, a polished circle of bronze.**

"That's my favorite shield."

**"This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"**

**Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.**

**"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder ..."**

"H," Hephaestus says. "That's mine.".

**"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"**

**He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."**

**"Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"**

**Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."**

"That was a little mean," Demeter said.

"I know."

**"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."**

**"I'll go with you." Grover** **didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.**

**"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."**

**Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"**

**"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me—" I started down the side of the pool.**

**We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.**

"Well I am beautiful." Aphrodite said.

**I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable—rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket.**

"It really did smell nice." Andy smiled at Aphrodite, who beamed back at her.

**"What?"**

**"Just get the shield, and let's get out of here."**

**The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble. My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb,** **I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.**

**"Wait," Annabeth said.**

**"Too late."**

**"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."**

**Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.**

"Uh-oh." Hermes sang.

**Grover yelled, "Guys!"**

**Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.**

**"We have to get out," I said.**

**"Duh!" Annabeth said.**

"Not the time to be sarcastic Annabeth," Athena said.

**I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.**

**"Come on!" Grover shouted.**

**He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.**

**The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."**

"That would be hilarious to see," Apollo finally spoke up smiling.

"I agree," Hermes laughed. "We should install cameras before we prank people here on Olympus." They both laughed nodding.

**"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"**

**We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.**

**Annabeth screamed.**

"Oh gods." Andy sighed.

**It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.**

**"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"**

Athena shuddered and looked at her daughter with pity.

"You're scared of Spiders?" Nico laughed.

"It's because of arcane, right? Will asked.

Annabeth nodded.

**I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.**

Athena looked at Andy, almost thankful.

**The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.**

**Annabeth and I climbed into the boat.**

**I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.**

Annabeth's cheeks colored with embarrassment.

**"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.**

**The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.**

"That wasn't meant for you." Hephaestus told Annabeth.

"It's alright." .

**Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.**

**Think, I told myself. Think.**

**The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.**

**"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.**

**Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?**

"That's a good idea." Athena said it mostly to herself, but everyone heard.

**Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.**

**"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"**

**"But—"**

**"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.**

"You are a good friend." Hestia smiled at Andy.

"She would do it for me." She sounded absolutely sure. "If I was afraid she would help me."

"Of course I would Seaweed brain."

**Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.**

**"Five, four—"**

**Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.**

**I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.**

"That might be over kill," Poseidon said grimly.

**"Two, one, **_**zero**_**!"**

**Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.**

"Yup over kill." Apollo smiled his perfect smile, and Andy had to stop herself from sighing just from seeing it.

**The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.**

**Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.**

"This must've been awesome to watch, I'm sorry I wont get to see it." Hermes nodded his agreement to his friend.

**But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. **

"It wasn't," Annabeth says.

"You can control boats?" Athena sounded truly interested.

"Yes, but it works best with old sailing boats, or pirate ships." Andy smirked, and Athena wasn't sure if the girl was mocking her or not.

**At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.**

**Annabeth and I held tight,** **both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.**

**Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.**

**If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.**

"You're going to get crushed!" Poseidon shook his head.

"Such little faith you have father." Andy teased.

**"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.**

**"Are you crazy?"**

"Only a little." Will laughed.

**"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares' shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.**

"That's insane," Nico yelled.

"It was the only option, I couldn't stop the boat."

"Well it's smart, but will most likely lead to injuries. Athena nodded.

**Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.**

**"On my mark," I said.**

**"No! On my mark!"**

**"What?"**

**"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle—"**

"English Annabeth!" Nico scolded her.

**"Fine.'" I shouted. "On **_**your **_**mark!"**

**She hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"**

_**Crack!**_

**Annabeth was right. If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.**

Athena smiled at her daughter.

**Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.**

There were several groans.

**Something grabbed me from behind.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"**

**Grover!**

"Way ta' go Grover!" The demigods cheered.

**In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.**

**"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"**

"You never tell a lady she's to heavy it's one of the golden rules." Apollo sighed shaking his head. He didn't notice Andy wince but Poseidon, Artemis, Hermes, Annabeth, Aphrodite, Will, and Demeter all did.

**We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.**

**We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares' shield was still on my arm.**

There were several jokes about Grover in the photo everyone chuckled at before Hephaestus continued.

**Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.**

"At least you're safe," Hestia said.

**A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming.**

"That must've looked awesome!" Apollo and Hermes laugh.

**The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.**

**"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"**

The demigods, all laughed with Hermes, and Apollo, even Poseidon joined in.

"Who knew you were such a good sport Andy." Will teased.

**The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.**

"I'm sure everyone was watching that." Hermes assured Andy.

**I hated being teased.**

**I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."**

"I think that's enough for the night, the demigods should get some rest, and the mortal."

Most people had forgotten all about Rachel, she hadn't said a word since she gave Zeus the message from the Fates when she arrived. Andy decided to talk to her in the morning. For now, she just wanted to get out of this room, and be alone.


End file.
